On the weekend of 25-26th February the Strathclyde University ran the first British Keelboat League event of the 2023 season.
10 Teams participated in 707’s at Port Edgar Yacht Club and each team managed to complete 10 races to determine the finishing places.
Here’s the event report from Louis Hockings-Cooke, University of Strathclyde Sailing club Yachting Captain.
The weekend was one of perfect breeze giving ideal conditions for all those new to keelboat sailing a great opportunity to get stuck in, There was exciting matches at the front middle and back of the fleet keeping everyone entertained.
The weather forecast predicted the lightest of breezes but luckily it turned out to be wrong; giving a perfect 10-12 knots all weekend and even some sun on Sunday, the last couple of races where done in a failing breeze with a flooding tide making a good start crucial!
A funny thing happened on the racecourse today:
Glasgow Yellow got bored in one of the races so decided to tow the windward mark with its keel.
A quote from one of our sailors:
Jake Miller said: ‘The last Scottish Student Yachting Championships was run in 2018 so for many of those competing, this weekend was their first taste of student yacht racing. It was fantastic to see a turnout of 10 teams with sailors across 7 different universities. Louis (Hockings-Cooke) put in a ton of work to re-start Scottish Student Yachting and his efforts were rewarded with great weather and racing! Hopefully Louis has set the momentum for future students to continue his work and keep the event running for years to come.’
And from the Louis:
I Would like to thank The race officers Paul Deponio, Margaret Tait for getting 25 great races in. Gerry Fitzgerald from the 707 class association for organising the boats. Charlie Simpson from PEYC for supporting the event as well as our sponsor Tunnocks and RYA Scotland and K-Sail for their support.