Arctic Mist

NAME: Arctic Mist L374

BUILDER: Robbie Tait

YEAR: 1966

OWNED AND SAILED BY: Robbie Tait with initial crew Roderick Slater and Joe Kay. Theo Nicholson replaced Joe Kay in 1969 and sailed until 1979.

CLUB: Lerwick

INTER-CLUB SAILING DETAILS: Winner of 25 trophies including: 2 North Challenge Cups, 4 Smith Cups, 3 Devon Bowls, 3 Linklater Cups, 2 International Paints Cups and 5 Memorial Cups.

Notes: The Arctic Mist was a regular competitor at regattas throughout Shetland from 1966 until the early 1980s.

The Arctic Mist – 50 Years On

(Taken from 2018 Inter-Club Programme)

The Shetland Times’ report on the 1968 Inter-Club Regatta led with the headline “Arctic Mist’s record may never be equalled”. Better still, the Times’ front page headline the following week said that “Bobby Tait is all-time champion” along with an article on the remarkable 27 cup success of the Arctic Mist at all regattas that year, and a photograph of the beaming 21-year-old with all his cups. The Inter-Club haul was 5 individual cups and two shared with team-mate Barracouta, every race that the boat was eligible for. Together with his crew Roderick Slater (21) and Joe Kay (20), Bobby, later Robbie, heralded the era of the maid class boats and that magnificent sailing period from 1968 to the early 1980’s, when boat builders all over Shetland were inspired to follow the graceful lines of the Arctic Mist and a generation of young sailors tried to emulate that terrific 1968 season. The Arctic Mist was built by Bobby Tait himself in the winter of 1965/66 and was keenly sailed but with little success until the Inter-Club Regatta of 1967, when a single cup was won. The valuable experience of those first two seasons along with the new hand-crafted hollow spruce mast and the second-hand Flying Fifteen mainsail were a race winning combination for the Arctic Mist and, 50 years on, we salute their achievement. LK 374.

Photograph: Dennis Coutts