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.

Top Scots win National Squad places

Congratulations Alexander Still and Samantha Foster on securing National Topper Squad places for 2009/10. Excellent performances in the GBR Nationwide Indicator Series at Derwent Water, Poole, Mumbles and the Topper National Championships have won Alexander (14) and Samantha (15) places in the RYA GBR National Junior Squad and Purple Marine ITCA GBR National Youth Squads. Both squads will be training throughout the winter with regular weekends, a week long residential tarining camp in April and pre-Worlds and pre-Nationals warm up training at the event venues.

Well done both. Maintaining Scottish Topper's profile at the very highest level.

STOP PRESS West Squad sailor Jordan Black has secured as place in the ITCA (GBR) Topper Intermediate National Youth Squad. Well done Jordan.