Corson wins 'personal Olympics' with award

VETERAN owner-skipper John Corson proved one of the most popular overall winners of the Scottish Series Trophy last night when he lifted the top award at the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series after more than 25 years of near-continuous campaigning in the sport.

Corson, 80, raced at the first Scottish Series in 1975 in a Jolina 34 footer, and has come close to winning the overall top prize several times since. Sailing the Corby-designed 33 foot IRC race boat Salamander XX, Corson and his team won seven of their eight races to deliver a convincing triumph in IRC Class 3, one of the most competitive of the 13 classes at the 130-boat event.

"This is a really, really special thing for John," said John Highcock, the Clyde sailmaker who steered Salamander XX. "He has always wanted to win this. In a sense this is his Olympics, the biggest thing in sailing for him so it is a real honour to have contributed. We have been close before, but this time things came together.

"After last year we had plugged the gaps which we felt we might still have in terms of optimising the boat, the crew work is really exemplary and the result of many long hours on the water over the years. So this is very special."

Anthony O'Leary and his Cork crew of the Ker 39 Antix conclusively won IRC Class 1 after they posted a further two victories yesterday in a race which was run in near-perfect conditions on Loch Fyne near Tarbert. O'Leary, a long-time supporter of the Scottish Series, has won twice before in 2004 and 2006.

Counting six wins from eight starts in the nine-boat strong class, Antix has been impressive across all the wind ranges, proving that the team are in good shape for one of the highlights of the year, the Rolex Commodore's Cup international team regatta in August. Their class had plenty of depth, including another three past winners of the overall top trophy in second, third and fourth places.