Category Archives: activity

Skiff regatta

On Saturday the 24th there is a skiff regatta on Forfar Loch on the birthday of the ‘Mary Campbell’. The day will start with boats arriving from 8:30 with breakfast rolls. Tea and coffee during the day as well as some excellent cakes to keep going. There will be sandwiches for lunch time.

Racing will begin at 10:30 on the loch, where we have a 1km straight to create a 2km long race.

Our race categories are:

  • 280 mix
  • 50+women
  • open mixed
  • 60+women
  • 60+men
  • open women
  • 50+women
  • 60+mixed

Please pop in if you have time and support the skiff team.

Sailing training for beginners

We have run a cadet sailing training for beginners with great success, and we are about to begin an adult training session. The cadet sessions have been run on Sunday mornings for 6 weeks and all cadets have been successful in completing the level 1 sailing.
Soon we are about to start a 2 day course for adults, where they will be given a full day instructions on how to start with sailing, getting into boats and get hands on coaching. We have some spaces for anyone interested in giving sailing a go.
The cost of the course is £60.00 pp, plus a club membership at 50% of the cost. With the membership you can keep sailing after you have completed the course in any of the club boats. The hire price for the club boats is also removed for the rest of the year, therefore there is no reason to not practice after the course.

Great job by the radio sailors

The radio sailors took advantage of the lack of wind to start some of the maintenance.

We made a good start to replacing the steps down to the jetties, joinery work complete, old steps removed and new timbers in place.

The for tomorrow is to replace the concrete block and stones to the tread then concrete the gap which is left to hopefully reduce the weeds growing up through the steps. (Tich)

They went on to have a good, almost complete days sailing with 10 races completed in light winds from the east. The breeze did swing about from SE to E to NE making for interesting racing.

Great commitment yesterday and today from the radio sailors team as the steps have been replaced by them at the inch. 

Thanks for a splendid job.

(Tony)

Doesn’t it look good, safe steps down to the jetties for everyone!

Tyr sailing and training weekend

During last weekend we had 2 boats out for a ‘try sailing’ where both enjoyed their time on the water. One was so keen that he came back the next day as a member to take part in the training.

On Sunday we had some members out for a second training day, 2 took to the water in a wanderer under instructions from Malcolm, while the other 2 braved it out solo and used the club laser. With the safety boat between them and giving instructions or support they managed to stay upright, sail up, down and from side to side on the loch. Some slight mishaps and connecting with the boom did not stop them going back out after a tea break.

Gus enjoyed it so much that he decided to join in the race, making it a firefly, a wanderer and 2 lasers. Course set to X (Z), K, C and F to port before coming back to A to starboard. 3 laps, where we had Jack in a topper joining in to get some experience sailing a course.

All in all a good weekend, Saturday the skiff was out in Montrose. Maybe we can get a few words on that with the large amount of photos that are taken on that day and place them online and in the news letter.

Opening regatta

The forecast for the Opening Regatta on Sunday 23rd was not good, with suggestions of a strong Northerly, with gusts of force 5 increasing to force 6 in the afternoon. The wind on the inch was indeed Northerly, though on the loch itself the steadiest direction was Easterly. A course of C, E, X, A was initially set by the race officer, but after boats were on the water, and conditions observed, the course was reversed to X, E, C, A. This proved to be the correct move.

An excellent 11 boats were on the water. 5 laser radials, 4 fireflies (3 from Aberdeen University), a solo, and a Wanderer. This made the starts exciting, with much jockeying for position and cries of ‘starboard!’ as everyone tried to get the best start.

For the first race that person was Helen Brown (laser radial) followed by David Smith (firefly) and Malcolm Heron (laser radial) who rounded the first mark in that order.  The first unplanned swim, by Jamie Brown (laser radial), happened before the first mark, but he quickly recovered and didn’t trouble the rescue boat (ably manned by Sebastian Kimber). The extremely variable breeze, both in direction and strength, caused much pain to the sailors, eventually being the undoing of David in his firefly. He capsized after rounding E mark and his mast stuck in the mud in the shallow water, resulting in his retiral from the race.  The remainder of the fleet had a very close fought race, with only 20 seconds, on corrected time, between the first 5 boats.
1st Helen
2nd Malcolm
3rd Tony Walker and Bill Myles (Wanderer)
4th Jill Reid (firefly AUSC)
5th Becci Oosterhoorn (laser radial)

The wind abated slightly for the second race so was initially less exciting at first. The fleet was joined by Connor Hyndland and his daughter Charlotte, who quickly rigged a club Feva, just in time for the start.  Mark Kimber (laser radial) was first round the first mark, followed by the Wanderer, then Helen. The down wind section to E saw several casualties, all of whom recovered without assistance. At C mark, Helen took the lead, which she later lost to Malcolm. It was another very close race, with 5 seconds, on corrected time, between the first 5 boats.
1st Malcolm
2nd Stuart Dallas (firefly AUSC)
3rd Jamie
4th Mark

As the first two races were very hard work, the third race was shorter – 2 laps of the course instead of 3. Helen made an excellent start, less than a minute after capsizing behind the line. There were more capsizes (mostly ‘dry’) as tired sailors found the conditions demanding for tired bodies, and everyone was very glad to come ashore at the end of the race.
1st Helen
2nd Malcolm
3rd Mark
4th Jamie

End result overall:
1st, and winner of the Inch Cup Helen Brown (laser radial)
2nd Malcolm Heron (Laser Radial)
3= Mark Kimber and Jamie Brown (laser radial)

Opening regatta and invite from the skiffies

Hi all,

The skiffies would like to invite you to a social on Sunday 30th April from 4pm until around 7pm. It’s an opportunity for the whole club to get together. The plan is for the club to order in pizza and you can BYOB.

If you’d like to come along please message Sarah with your name(s) or reply by email. We hope to see you there 😀🚣‍♀️

Opening Regatta (Sunday 23 April):

The briefing for the opening regatta is at 10:45 with the first gun at 11:00 with a target of 3 races (minimum). Anyone welcome, if there are (new) members that would like to offer themselves as crew please let us know and we will try to get you into a boat.

We will be looking for some bakes to be available, please let us now if you can provide some (with a note of the main ingredients for any allergies)

The commodore
Mark Kimber