Tag Archives: sailing

Long service award from the RYA

I am delighted to share with you that our very own Tony Walker has been conferred a Long Service Award by the RYA.

Tony joined Forfar Sailing Club in 1974/5 and has been a continuous member ever since. During this time he has always taken an active part in the running and development of the club, including holding various positions as committee member, Secretary and twice Commodore. Even now, he continues his strong work and community ethic as the current co-ordinator for ground and building maintenance: organising work parties and making sure that the steps and pontoons are safe, as well as cutting the grass every week!

Over the years Tony has worked with various local groups and organisations to attract new members to the club. He was key to the return of Aberdeen University Sailing Club to Forfar and continues to encourage and develop our relationship with them. He keeps in regular contact with other affiliated groups, such as the Radio Sailors and local Angling club to maintain and develop good relationships.

Tony has an incredible amount of drive and once he has set his sights on a goal, no obstacle is too great. He makes excellent use of his local contacts to ensure that the club is well supported by local companies and other clubs.

In 2021, he was instrumental in getting the “skiff project” off the ground and through to completion. Bringing together the Rotary to help with finding funding, Men’s Shed to build the skiff and Strathmore Cricket Club to provide a shed to build it in.  He also organised for students at the local secondary school to be involved. Forfar Sailing club now looks after two skiffs and encourages member of the public of all ages to take part at the various sessions that are run each week.

Recently he has worked with a local architect, local rangers, local industry and Historic Scotland to develop a storage area for the Club on St Margaret’s Inch, which is a Scheduled Monument so development is very sensitive. As always, his drive to reach a suitable solution keeps things moving forward.

Tony continues to be an active member on the water and regularly takes part in the series racing each week. Even when conditions are challenging, he is the first to say ‘come on, let’s get sailing!’.  He is also very generous with his time on the water and will pretty much go out on any boat if it helps to get someone else out on the water. A lapsed dinghy instructor, he is always available to take new sailors out and often supports young and inexperienced sailors to take the helm. He regularly engages a cadet member as his crew for club regattas and encourages everyone to get involved to the best of their ability.

We are a very small club and over the 12 years that I have been a member we have faced continual challenges with attracting new members. Tony’s unwavering support is without doubt a significant factor in securing the club’s future.

Please join me in congratulating Tony on his achievement and dedication to Forfar Sailing & Watersports Club.

Note that he is currently reluctant to receive his award at the RYA Awards Presentation & reception at the RYA Dinghy & Watersports show in Farnborough in February, due to its potential clash with the FWSC prize giving! 

All the best,

Helen Brown

Olympic Sailing: Point – Counter-Point

The Irish Times carried an editorial by Jonathan Liew in which he found the Olympic Games had grown to include many sports, and arguably, too many.

So Liew initiated a review, and found many negatives about Sailing, calling it to be “a continuing sop to super-rich men who founded the Games and still just really love yachts, basically inaccessible to most of the countries in the world, even the ones with a viable coastline.”

There was a lot of disagreement with his view… here’s what Sheila Armstrong had to say:
I learned to sail off the coast of Sligo in a three-metre Mirror dinghy built by my father sometime in the early 1990s. So did my siblings, my cousins, and my nieces and nephews. The boat is called Sideshow Bob, and it has been holed, capsized and repaired so many times that the Ship of Theseus could take notes. We travelled to competitions around Ireland and even made it abroad a few times in these Mirror dinghies. As adults, some of us graduated to larger boats and some drifted away, but we can all still tie a damn good knot. –
Full report

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.

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.

Race report

Race report Sunday 09/06

Time: 14:00:00
OOD: Dennis Burgin
Wind direction and speed:West, 15-18
Handicap race, course: E – starboard,D – starboard,C – starboard,G – port,K -port,A – port

Sunday was a bright and breezy day, ideal for a day on the Loch. Four boats took to the water: Malcolm Heron in his Lazer, David Smith in his Firefly, Sebastian Kimber with crew Martha Treffrey in a Feva and Jonathan Treffrey in Topper.
At the start, Malcolm was first to cross the line followed closely by David. Sebastian was a few seconds behind with Jonathan eventually crossing the line to join the race. The boats proceeded around the course in that order with no changes of position and with increasing distance between each one despite the attempts of some crews to give others an advantage. Sebastian and Martha used the gennaker at every opportunity and in their enthusiasm, they overshot D mark and had to go back, David got tangled up at K and Jonathan mistook the G mark for Z and sailed off in the wrong direction. Malcolm sailed flawlessly to a convincing win. Malcolm and David completed 3 laps with the other two boats finishing 2.

Results:
1st Malcolm Heron
2nd David Smith
3rd Sebastian Kimber / Martha Treffrey
4th Jonathan Treffrey

Time: 15:20:00
Handicap race, course: E – starboard,D – starboard,C – starboard,G – port,K -port

The second race was very similar to the first but with everyone making a much better start. There were fewer mistakes being made, the first race practice paying off. Jonathan sailed the correct course and the Feva crew seemed to have better sail control. The wind reduced for the second half of the race making it impossible for David to reduce Malcolm’s lead and the results were the same as the first race but with the fleet staying a little closer together.

1st Malcolm Heron
2nd David Smith
3rd Sebastian Kimber / Martha Treffrey
4th Jonathan Treffrey