Weather Update from the Forth

Awoke this morning to the sound of hail driven horizontally against our windows and a virtual whiteout. I would not have ventured to the end of the drive let alone out onto the beach. The precipitation has now stopped for a while and I am enjoying siting here (inside) in a patch of bright sunshine but the river is still being whipped into fierce white horses by the breeze of around 25 knots and from the two heavily reefed keelboats that just battered their way past through some "right over the top" waves, I think that Largo made a very wise call.

Well done guys, see you later in the spring for our traveller event which I am very much looking forward to already.

11.30 AM, Saturday, 01 January 2010.

Largo lost to continuing adverse weather!

Sorry folks - Largo Bay have had to cancel their new Year Regatta planned for Saturday 2nd January due to the forecast high winds and consequent double digit minus wind chill temperatures expected.

See www.largobaysc.org.uk

Nextopportunity for Topper Racing will be the mid winter Championships at Rutland. See www.gbrtopper.co.uk

RYA Scotland Zone Championships 2010

Checking out the event list on the Helensburgh SC website I see that the excellent new clubhouse will be in frequent use this year with a busy programme of events planned for 2010. For Toppers there are two of particular note the Junior Regatta on 17/18th june and the RYA Scotland Zone Championships on 24/25 September.

Helensburgh SC

Largo Bay Regatta. 2nd January 2010

With no racing at Strathclyde Loch and just two hardy Toppers at Royal Tay on Boxing Day I know there must be some stir crazy young sailors out there. Well there is still one chance for a good day's racing before we all return to school or work.

Why not pop down to Lower Largo in Fife on Saturday 2nd January for the very first Scottish regatta of 2010. There is a briefing at 11 AM followed by 3 planned races. The beach is a great place for parents/drivers etc to stroll of those Christmas pounds or exercise your hairy friends (dogs - not husbands). The club is small but very friendly and the Largo Bay soups are legend.

420 and Oppi's welcome too but lets have a fleet of top Toppers please.

Details are at Largobaysc.org.uk

Here is a local area map the best approach is down Durham Wynd from the main road as Main street can be very narrow in places.

The weather forecast looks good with 6 days to go but check the web site the day before to confirm as the club will cancel early if conditions look unfavourable so as to avoid any wasted journeys.

G.

Reflections on 2009

As Santa Claus beds down his reindeer in the North Pole stables and heads off for his well earned holidays it is perhaps time to reflect on the year that was. Below is the review of 2009 which featured in the most recent ITCA Topper News. All those of you who are ITCA members should have received your copy in the post. All those of you who are not memebers should please consider joining for 2010. You can do so at http://www.gbrtopper.co.uk/

ITCA is the name for the voluntary organisation which represents all Topper sailors in the UK. Without ITCA there would be no Topper events in wehich to participate. By joining you support our association and you also ensure we will keep you informed all the fabulous opportunities to get the most out of your Topper sailing.

It was a busy winter for Scottish Toppers with National Squad training supplemented by a very well attended programme of RYA and ITCA open training events at venues from Channonry in the far North to Annandale in the South by way of clubs at Port Edgar Largs Loch Lomond Helensburgh and Monklands. Special mention must go the West Area open training led by Laurie Marsden assisted by Robin Paris which has been so popular it is in danger of needing a waiting list or qualification series.

When racing began in April it was Scottish Squad sailor Samantha Foster and the JDP's Jamie Noyes who set the early pace with a thrilling battle at windswept Annandale. Tied on points the Easter Egg went to Jamie on most firsts count back. Local sailor Jessica Campbell was third with Alexander Still in fourth.

Loch Vennacher, which was both a traveller and leg one of the Inlands, was a stark contrast in weather with light and shifting winds but Jamie showed his class with another victory. Emily Robertson took second, Angus Gray-Stephens was third and Alexander fourth again.

Next up was a trip to the Inlands at Grafham with a large Scottish Team making the drive South but it was a delighted Joanne Foster who stole the headlines with a third place in the 4.2 National Championships. The following weekend saw the strong Scottish Squad take second at the Eric Twiname Championships despite one of the team finding herself in an ambulance after a dramatic collision when she was sailed over by an out of control port tacker. Fortunately the suspected broken leg was only deep bruising and Sammi was back the next morning but alas the wind was not, so it was an early drive home for the Scots.

Next up was a trip to Largs in the West where it was back to light winds and no racing on the Sunday. Importantly this left no discards and no way back for those who had misjudged the tide on Saturday. Andrew MacGowan took his first victory of the season followed by local sailor Alistair Kent and Alexander Still was third.

Mid June saw the traditional visit to East Lothian YC, the 2011 Nationals venue and a fantastic weekend of sea sailing in rolling waves and a perfect force 4. This was Andrew MacGowan’s dream conditions and he took advantage. Jamie second, Angus third and Emily fourth.

In early July a smaller than usual fleet headed North to Channonry near Inverness and it was Jennifer Abraham who read the light winds best to record her first traveller victory. Joanna Barrie second and Jessica Campbell third.

Tarbert Loch Fyne was our next destination and a great event sailed in winds of 20 to at times 30 mph. This was memorable for another epic battle this time between new 420 partners Jamie and Angus Gray Stephens. Alexander and Jessica settled for third and fourth respectively.

August saw thirty five Scottish Toppers gathered at Pwllheli for what was a great week at the UK Nationals. High points included six Scottish squad boats in the gold fleet, race wins in bronze for Aaron Murray and Rory Kilgore and a very proud moment for your correspondent when Joanne Foster received a spot prize for sportsmanship after sailing off the race course to ask a RIB to assist a sailor in distress.

August should have seen the Scottish Champion crowned at Royal Forth but despite a great welcome and strenuous efforts to get the racing in, the whole country was being battered by gales and only one race was sailed so the Championship was postponed to Prestwick Youth Regatta where it was great to see GBR Junior squad member Andrew MacGowan become Scottish Topper Champion 2009. Jamie was second and Emma Palmer third with Alexander fourth.

The season finale was Loch Tummel in September which was also the second leg of the Inland Championship. After six close races with five separate race winners the victory for the weekend went rightly to Alexander Still with Jessica second and Rory third. Kyle Maxwell-Cox ended his Toppper career with a popular fourth as he plans to move into Lasers next year. Jamie did enough to secure both the 2009 Inland Championship and the Scottish Area Travellers Trophy. Joanna Barrie was awarded the Donnie Meldrum trophy for a remarkable performance in 2009 stepping up from the Regatta fleet last year to the Scottish Squad and 8^th overall in the Travellers. Well done everyone. Follow next year on www.scottishtoppers.blogspot.com.

Christmas Cancelled due to Snow???

Sorry folks but it is official, Christmas has been cancelled. Well to be exact the world famous Starthclyde Loch Christmas Regatta has had to be cancelled due to the adverse weather. (I know it is world famous because we told our friend Chris about it before he went back to Perth, Australia.

Check the SLSC website for the official notice here.

Royal Tay Yacht Club Boxing Day Bonanza on 26th December - first race starts at 11.30 AM.

Largo Bay New Year Regatta - Saturday 2nd January 2010. Weather report on Largo Bay web site looks good, click here.

Scrooge.

Strathclyde Loch Christmas Regatta - be there!

Traveller 2010 Final List

Its not perfect I know but this is it. The 2010 Travellers list.

Annandale, 24/25 April 2010
Dalgety Bay, 22/23 May 2010
Helensburgh, 19/20 June 2010
Largo Bay, 26/27 June 2010
Prestwick, 4/5 September 2010
Loch Tummel, 18/19 September 2010

Graham

Scottish Topper Travellers 2010

Once upon a time there was a little girl called Emma. Emma loved to sail and Emma's Mum loved to see Emma loving to sail so Emma's Mum took on organising Topper events and Emma's mum seemed to love organising sailing events so everyone left Emma's Mum to organise all the Topper sailing events. And everyone loved to grumble about the sailing events and how they seemed to always clash with other events and how they always seemed to come one weekend after another and never leave enough time off for club sailing or holidays but everyone seemd to love grumbling so they just kept on grumbling and Emma's Mum kept on orgaising and everyone was happy.

The the little girl called Emma grew up into a fine young woman, and the fine young woman looked around and found a world beyond the world of Toppers and decided that she loved to sail in the world beyond the world of Toppers and Emma's Mum saw that Emma was happy and loved to see Emma sailing in the world beyond the world of Toppers so she moved on to organising the world beyond the world of Toppers and oh boy does that leave a lot of organising to do! And a lot of grumbling - over to you.....

Having spoken with lots of likely candidate clubs and looked at previous events and attendance numbers the list of provisional venues for 2010 is starting to come together and despite my best efforts there will be clashes and weekends one after another and we cannot fit in several of our first choice events for a variety of reasons.

The provisional 2010 travellers list is therefore currently Annandale, Dalgety Bay, Helensburgh, Largo Bay, Prestwick and Tummel. That is one in the South, two in the East, two in the West and one in the North "ish". This list may still have to change or expand.

The Brown Cup will be at Loch Earn in it's usual early June slot with two days of training beforehand.

We have also have two Nationwides which we should support - Derwent Resevoir , which is more or less the same distance for most of us as Annandale and is a great venue with a super camping field so I would hope to see every Scottish Topper there in June and Largs which is in early September.

The RYA Zone Championships will be in late September venue tbc (? Loch Earn).

I am also in discussions with possible sponsors and "Emma's Mum" (see above) is compiling a bid to the RYA seeking funding for coach support for a Development Fleet at every event.

The RYA Yearbook goes to press very soon and I would like to have our dates fixed by then so further news as I can share it.

Graham

Where has all the Topper News Gone?

Hi Folks,
I was just wondering what is happening in the world of Scottish Toppers and I thought I would cast an eye over that useful Scottish Toppers blog that is always do up to date and informative.... What no posts since October? Have all the Toppers been in hibernation?

Well I know that is not the case! perhaps we are just too busy to remember to share our hectic training schedule with the wider world?

I am currently busy trying to put together next years Open Series events or at least I would be if i could get a minute between working and acting as a delivery driver to Topper training, school events, scout camps, gang shows, swimming pools, parties and the like.

I do know that you have all been very bust (oops, freudian slip, not credit crunch bust, I meant busy) with one thing or another. A chance meeting with the Milford clan last weekend (both days, different venues) confirmed the good news that the West squad had a great first weekend of training at Largs with an overnight at Inverclyde. Well done Laurie, sounds great, hope the new Optimist members did not cause you too much trouble!

The Scottish Squad have now had their first Cumbrae weekend which seems to have gone very well by all accounts. Weather not too bad, nothing broken, rain arrived just in time for packing up on Sunday - as usual.

The same weekend Lesley drove to Alton Towers to collect Sammi from a Scout event on the Saturday and to transfer her to Northampton SC to catch the second day of the first ITCA (GBR) Youth Sqaud weekend. My turn to to the driving next weekend (both the car and a support RIB, brrrrr...) It was howling windy (remember the gales that weekend) but I believe Scottish honour was upheld as Sammi may not have been the fastest round the course but was definitely the last boat still racing when all sailing was abandoned in the face of 40 knots plus.

The next weekend we were off to Largs for a day of Open Training with Joanne whilst Sammi was hanging from a tree. (Venture Scout Hamock camp - sleeping in the open between two trees under a tarpaulin) Joanne and Kae (Clark) had a great day learning to "review". A great excuse for a chat if you ask me! It was also really good to see a number of Scottish Toppers past and present benefiting from Largs SC club training led by our 2009 Development Fleet coach Emma Wilkie. Then my next trip was back to the Royal Tay Yacht Club for our weekly visit to their winter series where Lesley is crewing a 420 for Sammi.

What else is happening? Oh yes that Open series for 2010, well I guess I should start another post for that one. Meanwhile please send me your Scottish Topper News. We all want to know what is happening and our avid readers will soon tire of hearing what I do every weekend...

Graham

Brown Cup 2010

Here is advanced notice of the planned dates for the Scottish Schools Sailing Championships 2010 , the Brown Cup to take place on June 12-14, 2010

The Championships will be at Loch Earn Sailing Club and will preceeded by two days of Open Topper Training with some top coaches and the Championship proper will take place on Monday June 14th.

Further details will be posted on the Loch Earn Sailing Club web site next spring.

G.

Largo Bay New Year Regatta

East Squad - RYA Scotland Area Training

Applications are now invited for East Area Race Training at Port Edgar this winter. Training is for under 16s in Toppers and under 18s in Lasers and for all ages in RS Fevas. Toppers and Fevas are available for hire from Port Edgar.

The training dates are to be 31Oct/1 Nov, 28/29 November, 6/7 Feb 2010, 6/7 March 2010 and 27/28 March 2010.

Details from ryascotland or from James Urquhart, Sailing School Principal at Port Edgar.

GUL Topper World Championships 2010

ITCA has just confirmed that the the 2010 GUL Topper World Championships will be hosted by Malcesine Sailing Club, Lake Garda supported by ITCA (Italy) from 21st to 27th August 2010.

The Notice of Race will be pulished by the end of January 2010. Click on http://www.itcaworld.org/ to see further details as they are announced.

Information about Malcesine Sailing Club can be found here.

West Squad and Open Optimist Training anounced

From Angie at RYA Scotland;-

Hi guys

Hope you are all well and having fun. If the thought of not sailing until 2010 makes you cry there are some options over the winter.

West Squad is available for Topper, Opi and Feva sailors, closing date for applications is this Sunday and applications and information can be found here

http://www.ryascotland.org.uk/newssct/detail/Pages/T15%20News.aspx.


Also for Opi sailors there is beginner race training on Sunday afternoons at Strathclyde Park and a few weekends of training also.
Details can be found here

http://www.scottish-optimists.org.uk/

Well done for all your hard work this season.
Cheers

Angie :-)

Scottish Topper Squad 2010

Following a very successful Scottish Sailing Squad Fitness Assessment Day at Inverclyde involving Topper, Optimist, Laser, Windsurfer and Double Handed (mostly 420) Squad applicants it would appear from my initial observations that the successful 2010 Scottish Topper Squad applicants will be

Kae Clark,
Joanna Barrie,
Samantha Foster,
Joanne Foster,
Alexander Still,
Ian Symon,
Ian McLaughlin,
Dean Malcolm,
Andrew Mitchell,
Patrick Shellcock,
Aaron Murray and
Lewis Marr.

This is an unofficial list based on who I saw at Largs and various informal parent's comunications.

The official squad list will be confirmed by RYA Scotland at a later date once all the administration is completed.

The Scottish Squad coaching team will be led by Robin Paris with a dazzling array of guest coaches in support....

G.

Further Squad Successes

Further news on Scottish sailors gaining National Squad places. Congratulations to Annandale's SC sailor Jessica Campbell who has secured a place in the ITCA (GBR) National Intermediate Youth Squad and to Loch Tummel SC sailor Joanne Foster who has been invited to join the ITCA (GBR) National 4.2 Squad.

Well done girls.

G.

Squad Surprises

Being a lowly class rep I have no idea yet who has and has not been offered Scottish Topper Squad places this year and I suspect there may be some National Squad members or newly appointed 420 and Laser Squad members to reveal themselves too. So suspected Squad selection surprises shall have to wait till a further blog. What I can say for definite is that there will have been far more applicants than there are National Squad places available ands there are far more training opportuinities than just the National squad. So if you have not yet been offered a Scottish squad place then do not dispair. Much of the best training, and certainly the best fun, is to be found at Regional and ITCA Open training events and there are plenty of those over the coming months.

For a start there will be East and West Squad Training, the details of which are about to be released. Keep and eye on the RYA Scotland Racing Pages. For girls there is also the RYA All Girls Programme which takes place at four National venues each winter. Details of that are on the ITCA (GBR) Website. And once the weather begins to warm up again there will be some ITCA Open training events if I can set them up. Details will come out by e-mail to those whom I know and will be on this site and the Scotland pages of the ITCA (GBR) site for those I do not.

Keep smiling. There are very many ways to enjoy your Topper and more than one route to being the best sailor you can be.

G.

Helensburgh

If you are thinking of sailing at the Helensburgh Nationwide please enter immediately. Late entry fees start from the 11th October which makes it an expensive delay!

Also please check with your friends that they have entered too.

Entries are required on line at www.gbrtopper.co.uk

Thanks

G.

Plans for 2010

Hi Folks. Thought I would share my early thoughts so far re the calandar for next year. Provisionally I am trying to agree dates which suit Toppers but can as far as possible also fit with Oppies and Lasers so we can all travel together. This will not work for all our events but should work for the larger venues. We can then add a few smaller events of our own and that should give a good mix.

I have not spoken to West or East Squad coaches yet but I would like to try what some other areas do and hold a couple of one day "Sprint Cup" events on the Sunday after a Saturday of Area Squad Training. This would involve holding an open event with for or five races (with prizes etc) on the Sunday. The Coaches would be there to provide support and between race coaching for their Squad but the event would be open to all so the Scottish squad sailors could race too.

At the moment the Calendar would look something like this

Christmas mini series (very informal)
Strathclyde Loch Christmas Regatta
Boxing Day Bonanza at Royal Tay Yacht Club
New Years Day Regatta Largo Bay Sailing Club

Sprint Cup 1 (non series - ? March) Port Edgar
Sprint Cup 2 (non Series - ? March) possibly Monklands or Loch Lomond
Traveller 1 - ? Royal Gourock Early April Toppers only
Traveller 2 - ? Annandale Late April Topper and Oppi
UK Inlands - Grafham and Eric Twiname Championships (both May)
Traveller 3 - ? East Lothian - Early June - Topper, Oppi and Laser
Traveller 4 - ? Helensburgh - Mid June (Youth Regatta - Oppi)
Traveller 5 - ? Loch Lomond - Early July (Oppi too)
Topper Worlds tbc possibly Holland or Germany
Topper Nationals - Pwllheli early August (highly recommended - over 30 Scottish boats last year)
Traveller 6 /7 probably Glen Coe and Prestwick
Traveller 8 - ? Loch Tummel (Oppi and Laser too)

I will update as negotiations continue and UK dates are confirmed

G.