Busy racing programme for 2020 at Ullswater Yacht Club
by Sue Giles 14 Feb 2020 07:12 PST
Flying Fifteens racing on Ullswater © Julia Wilson
Ullswater Yacht Club launches into the 2020 racing season with a packed sailing programme for club members and seven major open events for visiting racers as well as the region's biggest annual event for junior sailors.
The opens include the iconic Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy, the three-day Mirror Class Nationals and the Ullswater Ultimate, which is part of the Great British Sailing Challenge, a national series of handicap events.
"It promises to be an exciting year for racers at UYC," said UYC Sailing Manager, Edmund Clarke. "We are offering something for all racers and are delighted to be hosting the RYA Regional Junior Championships for the second time in three years."
The award-winning Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy will be held, as usual, on the first full weekend of July - 4 and 5.
And there will also be a warm welcome for visiting competitors at six other special opens held throughout the sailing season. The competitive year kicks off with the Daffodil Regatta on April 25 and 26, which is open to all classes with separate starts for VX Ones, Musto Skiffs, Aeros and RS200s. There'll be daffodils galore at the prize-giving as UYC joins in Ullswater's spring celebrations featuring Wordsworth's famous poem.
The Daffodil Regatta is followed by five more events - a regional heat of the British Keelboat League on July 18 & 19; the Mirror Nationals, Thursday to Saturday, July 23-25; a Laser Border Travellers Open, Saturday, August 8; Ullswater Ultimate, August 15 & 16 and Keelboat Weekend, also a Flying Fifteen Travellers event, October 10 & 11.
The Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy is UYC's most prestigious event, winning the Cumbria Tourism Event of the Year in 2016 and voted number eight in the world's top 50 regattas by Yachts & Yachting Magazine. It has become so popular that for the last few years entries have been closed at the 230 limit well before the event. This year entry is online only and organisers expect it to again be oversubscribed so early entry is advised.
Two ACH races cover the length of Cumbria's most beautiful lake with one on Saturday and one on Sunday and ample space for camping and campervans and on-site catering and entertainment all weekend makes the Birkett a true Festival of Sailing.
Then on September 25 & 26, the club is the venue for a Festival of Junior Sailing - the RYA Junior Regional Championships for budding racers aged six to 16 years from all over the North. The event is one of 5 regional junior championships bring held all over the country on the same weekend and this year's entry at UYC is expected to be well over 100 of the region's most talented young sailors. When the club hosted the event in 2018, a record 168 young racers took part.
All the open events offer the usual UYC hospitality with excellent food, camping on site, and great racing in lovely surroundings.
For more details contact Edmund Clarke on or visit our website, ullswateryachtclub.org
This year's open events:
- Daffodil Regatta, Sat & Sun, April 25 & 26
- Lord Birkett Memorial Trophy, Sat & Sun, July 4 & 5
- British Keelboat League, Sat & Sun, July 18 & 19
- Mirror Nationals, Thurs to Sat, July 23 - 25
- Laser Open, Sat, Aug 8
- Ullswater Ultimate, Sat & Sun, Aug 15 & 16
- RYA Junior Regional Champs, Sat & Sun, Sept 26 & 27
- Keelboat Weekend, Sat & Sun, Oct 10 & 11