Robert Yates of Nijinsky took overall honours at the Savills Kip Regatta at the weekend. 73 entries in 11 classes made this year the most successful of the Savills sponsored era. 4 IRC Divisions, 4 One Design classes plus Sportsboat and CYCA classes brought the record entry. This is the third year running that Savills has sponsored the regatta. The global real estate adviser is well know for its sailing connections world wide including its sponsorship of the Savills Short Ocean Race Championship in Australia.

Always regarded as a 'warm up' for Scottish Series later in May, the news had obviously travelled far and wide as both Ireland and North East England based boats had travelled to the Clyde early for a 'taster' session against the local opposition. Yates J92 counted 2 x firsts and a second to take the top slot in a very competitive IRC Class 3.

Royal Gourock Yacht Club member Geoff Howison sailed his evergreen Bashford 41 Local Hero to victory in IRC Division 1 and Kip based racers Paul and Richard Harris came out on top in their Sidney 36 Tan It ahead of Chris Bonar"s Bateleur and Savills Director Andrew Perrett"s First 40.7 Grand Cru in IRC Division 2.

Travelling up from Windermere the Eagleton/Waterhouse partnership sailed the ½ Tonner Chia Chia well to claim victory ahead of last year"s regatta winner overall John Kent in the Farr ¼ Tonner Farr e Nuff within IRC 4.

The Sigma 33 Class was well supported this year ahead of their Scottish Series Championship in 2 weeks time. Donald McLarens Sigmatic came out eventual winner ahead of Scott Chalmers in Making Waves who has returned to the Sigma 33 fleet after a number of years out. Another well supported One Design class this year and going through a bit of a revival was the 8 strong Sonata Class with boats being trailed down from as far away as Aberdeen to compete. It was Richard Huggins weekend as he came out top in So ahead of Cove based Allan Harper in Pied Piper and Mark Taylor from Troon in Saraband.

New to the event this year was the Flying Fifteen class and despite the wet and fickle conditions over the weekend Cardwell Bay Sailing Club member Graeme Galbraith had the honour of picking up the Class trophy for the first time in Ffunky Chicken ahead of Holy Loch Sailing Club members Ferguson and Orr in Riff Raff and Jim McLean third in Waffle.

The Sonar class also made their way down from Rhu and although there were not as many as expected the class racing was good with Ewan MacKay in Haggis winning overall ahead of Asboat Grigoir Whyte.

The onshore entertainment was held at Kip Marina"s Chartroom Bar & Restaurant with some frustrations of the day"s racing being taken out on the laser clay pigeon shooting and the paintball targeting. A busy night ensued as The Squashed Frogs kept everyone going with some lively music well into the small hours.

Savills Kip Regatta full results can be found via the link on www.kipmarina.co.uk or www.rwyc.org.uk.