Dinghy Fleet Racing Championships Success

Despite tough weather conditions that made organising the event far from plain sailing, the Scottish Student Sailing team put on an excellent show at the recent Dinghy Fleet Racing Championships.

Sailors took their boats into the water at the University of Dundee on a glorious Saturday morning into perfect sailing conditions, with a steady wind blowing and an unseasonably warm sun taking the edge off it was certainly a day to remember!

There were nine boats out competing as one class. The students completed five, 30-minute races throughout the day – three in the morning and two in the afternoon. Placing was determined by average lap time per boat and the appropriate handicap was applied to ensure fairness across the board.

After an absolutely spectacular day on the water, most were reluctant to head back to dry land. All of the  competitors came off the water smiling and a great day of racing was had all round.

Unfortunately, the weather on Sunday proved to be a different beast entirely and Sunday’s racing was canceled due to persisting strong winds and gusts of up to 35 knotts.

The top results were as follows:

1^st place – Rory McKinna, boat – Hansa 303 (University of Dundee)

2^nd place – Ffinlo Wright, boat – RS Aero 9 (Univesity of St. Andrews)

3^rd place – Mathilde Elise Lind & Matthew Newcomer, boat – Firefly (University of Edinburgh)

Thank you to everyone who competed in the event. Thank you to those from Dundee University who organised and hosted the event. Thank you to Royal Tay Yacht Club who offered a huge amount of support and provided volunteers and catering at the event – we couldn’t have done it without them. Thank you to Aberdeen University Sailing Club who allowed us to hire out their new fireflies – this allowed those sailors without their own boats to get out on the water and race.

What Did You Think? Let us know what you thought of the event by filling in our quick !