Wednesday 1st February 2023

Getting To Know Sailing

Want to know more about Sailing before joining a society? Here’s a quick overview of the sport and what SSS has to offer.

For the majority of modern history, Sailing has been used as a mode of transportation across bodies of water. From the first sailboats in Ancient Egypt to the early 20th Century, Sailing was essential to cross the world’s oceans to reach faraway countries/continents. However, with modern technological advancements, Sailing has been increasingly used for recreational and sporting purposes.

Sailing is both simple and complex. While there are many intricacies to racing rules, the simplest explanation is that Sailing is a race between either two (known as a match race) or multiple (known as a fleet race) sailboats. The first person/team to cover the required distance is the winner. There are many different types of sailboats used throughout the sports history. Currently, the eligible boat types are Dinghy, Skiff, Multihull, Sailboard, Kiteboard and Monotype.

Great Britain is the most successful nation at the Olympics, with 31 gold, 21 silver and 12 bronze medals in sailing. In 2020, Great Britain won three gold medals. Giles Scott won the Men’s Finn, Stuart Bithell and Dylan Fletcher won the Men’s 49er and Eilidh McIntyre and Hannah Mills won the Women’s 470. McIntyre’s father, Michael McIntyre who won sailing gold at the 1988 Seoul Games, was a graduate of the University of Glasgow.

Scottish Student Sport selects individuals to join their Sailing team every year, where they compete in a host of events including the Laser Performance Collegiate Cup. There is also the SSS Yachting Championship, Team Racing Championship, Ceilidh Cup and BUCS MR Finals. For more information, click here: https://www.scottishstudentsport.com/sports/sailing/

If you’re interested in joining a Sailing club, click the following links:

UHI: https://www.hisa.uhi.ac.uk/groups/uhi-wind-and-wave-club

University of Aberdeen: https://www.ausa.org.uk/sports/club/ausailing/

University of Dundee: https://sportsunion.dundee.ac.uk/clubs/sailing/

University of Edinburgh: https://www.eusu.ed.ac.uk/organisation/sailing/

University of Glasgow: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/sport/whatson/club/sailing/

University of St. Andrews: https://sailing.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/

University of Strathclyde: https://www.strathunion.com/sports-union/club-sport/club/7120/

Sports Chair: Hazel Brimelow – scottishstudentsailing@outlook.com

Governing Body: RYA Scotland – https://www.rya.org.uk/gbni/scotland

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