Topper class at the RYA Scotland Spring Championships

RYA Scotland Spring Championships © Dougie Bell

RYA Scotland Spring Championships © Dougie Bell

On the weekend of the twenty third and twenty fourth of April, Loch Venachar Sailing Club hosted the RYA Scotland Spring Championships for Optimists, Fevas and Toppers. Twenty seven toppers fought for the grand title of Topper Spring Champion of the year, a title earned, in the end by Calum Bell. Loch Venachar did a sterling job of organising the event and I would like to say a special thanks on behalf of all the volunteers from the club for the warm welcome we received, especially my Mum, commodore Judy Warburton. Thanks also to Matt Toynbee who organised the event and was there on the day making sure everything went smoothly. Both days were kick-started by fantastic coaching in the morning for all classes, which for the Toppers was led by Duncan Hepplewhite, and his team, Iain, Julia, Ally and Scott. They all did a great job and I'm sure everybody learned loads.

The racing started with one race before lunch on the Saturday and the toppers started off the event with a bang by sailing the wrong course. After a lot of careful thought the race committee decided to count the race because everybody sailed the same course albeit the wrong one, so everybody went out after lunch for more races, and promptly missed the allotted start time. The race officer ignored that one. After that the Toppers raced three really good, highly competitive, races with very few mishaps and no general recalls or postponements. The wind was very shifty which was, I am sure, viewed as a great learning opportunity by all sailors. The race committee did a tremendous job of running things smoothly despite the challenging conditions that Loch Venachar presents.

On the Sunday, the sun rose over a beautiful view of a flat calm Loch Venachar, fortunately the wind picked up for the training in the morning, unfortunately it dropped to nothing again for the racing. The race committee were forced to postpone the racing while we waited for the wind, luckily the coaches stepped in and did an excellent job of keeping everybody entertained and out of trouble until the wind filled in and the race committee was able to run the final race of the event smoothly. Everybody sailed in and packed up in time for one of Matt's famous, super fast prize-givings and everybody hit the road after a successful weekend on the water.

Topper prizewinners in the RYA Scotland Spring Championships - photo © Dougie Bell

Overall Results: