Scottish Student Sailing Women's Team Racing Championship 2018

Scottish Student Sailing Women's Team Racing Championship 2018 © Penhaul Photography / www.penhaulphotography.co.uk

Scottish Student Sailing Women's Team Racing Championship 2018 © Penhaul Photography / www.penhaulphotography.co.uk

Scottish Student Sailing Women's Team Racing Championship 2018 © Penhaul Photography / www.penhaulphotography.co.uk

The second Scottish team racing event of the new season took place at Oban Sailing Club over the 3-4 November. This was hosted and run by the University of Highlands and Islands Wind and Wave Club (UHIWWC), the newest student sailing club in Scotland (UHIWWC, founded in September 2016).

This was the second team racing event that UHIWWC had ever hosted and its first Scottish Student Sailing event. We hope it will be the first of many in future years. All racing took place in Oban Bay, the event being run with the assistance of Oban Sailing Club, the host club of UHIWWC.

The Championship was won by Bardowie Beasts of the University of Strathclyde.

While volunteers made the last preparations at the sailing club, nine student teams arrived on the Friday night - Aberdream, Bardowie Beasts & Ruberduckies (Strathclyde), DUSC 1 (Dundee), Edinburgh Gals, Glasgow 1 & 2, St Andreas and UHI Purple. They were greeted with the traditional Oban welcome, a pub tour of the town.

Saturday morning was also a traditional Oban welcome, this time, in true winter fashion, with high southerly winds, leading to challenges with mark laying, which unfortunately delayed the one start of the day. To test the conditions the first brave teams rigged their cut downs and charged around the course with plenty of spills, but an eventual Edinburgh victory. Following this, however, the squally conditions led to racing being postponed until the following day. With boats derigged in quick time, the teams headed back to their hosts for a pre-ceilidh nap. The ceilidh was an excellent addition to the SSS Women's event, which was loved by all and something we hope is repeated for future events.

Sunday morning, in contrast, was champagne sailing conditions across the Bay. Thanks to a very early start by the volunteers, racing got under way at 0903. Conditions held, thanks to the smiles of a kindly weather deity, and a full round robin of teams was completed, before a change to full sails and the finals. With the top four teams being Dundee, Edinburgh, St Andrews and Strathclyde the knockouts. These were close fought until the last race and "sailing the Finals against St Andrews, whilst the sun was setting, made the win... extra special" for team captain and club Commodore of Strathclyde Sophie Taylor. Overall Strathclyde claimed first prize, chocolates donated by the Oban Chocolate Company, beating St Andrews in to second, while Edinburgh claimed third prize.

The weekend has been a hugely enjoyable experience for everyone involved and a perfect training event with St Andreas' captain Emily considering it, "a great opportunity for our new female helm and crews to gain more experience," something which is so vital for so many sailors who have not necessarily had the opportunities, funding or support to learn and attend high level youth race training. In addition, for a new club, this was an enormous learning experience for both UHIWWC and OSC. We will be hosting more events like this in the future.

It would not have been possible without the help of all of our volunteers, the race officials and the loan of boats and equipment from Dundee University Sailing Club, Craignish Boat Club and Argyll College.

All results are available here: events.ksail.co.uk/2018/SSSWomen

Scottish Student Sailing Women's Team Racing Championship 2018 - photo © Penhaul Photography / www.penhaulphotography.co.uk

Stage 1 'Round Robin' Summary (8 races):

Knockouts:

Scottish Student Sailing Women's Team Racing Championship 2018 - photo © Penhaul Photography / www.penhaulphotography.co.uk