Optimists in the RYA Youth and Junior Championship at Loch Tummel Sailing Club

Loch Tummel Youth and Junior Championship © Peter Brown

Loch Tummel Youth and Junior Championship © Peter Brown

14 Optimist sailors travelled to the RYA Youth and Junior Championship at Loch Tummel on 17th-18th June to enjoy glorious sailing conditions. This was the last Optimist Traveller in the 2022-2023 series with close competition in both the main and regatta fleets.

With a medium wind on the Saturday and warm sunshine, the fleet got to the start just before the start sequence began. The first race set the pattern for the entire weekend - Andrew Perratt took a clear lead and held it for the rest of the race, with the rest of the fleet in close contention with each other. The RO managed to fit in 5 races on Saturday, and while Dougal Jackson and Logan Brown were pretty consistent in their 2nd and 3rd places earlier in the day, the tables were turned in the final race when Finlay Ritchie with Angus Millar showed the older boys how to finish the day with their 2nd and 3rd places in race 5.

Gavin Homer had kindly laid on a 29er for some transition training during Saturday evening, which some of the Optimist sailors took advantage of (and to escape the Loch Tummel midge!), and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience - thank you Gavin.

On the Sunday the wind built up as the day progressed. Andrew continued his run of bullets, but there was much more variability in the rest of the fleet. 2nd and 3rd places were shared by Dougal, Logan, Angus, Finlay, Hector Jackson and Cameron Ritchie, and this variation in places continued across the fleet - good close racing from everyone.

The main fleet final result was Andrew Perratt 1st, Dougal Jackson 2nd and Logan Brown 3rd. The girls results was Clarissa Jackson 1st, Blythe Brown 2nd and Elsie Munro 3rd. Hector Jackson collected the impressive RYA trophy for the highest placed junior sailor.

In the regatta fleet, the Loch Tummel SC sailors also swapped places throughout their races on Sunday with Jodie Ferguson coming out ahead of Maise Macintyre and Olivia Turner.

The Scottish Optimist fleet is fortunate in having a number of trophies that are awarded to the best sailors in a number of categories when the overall Travellers results are complete. This being the last event of the year, the new RYAS Chief Executive, Finlo Cottier, kindly presented this year's trophies along with the weekend's prizewinners:

• Scottish Traveller trophy: Andrew Perratt
• 2nd Place Traveller trophy: Logan Brown
• Scottish Ladies Traveller trophy: Kate Shelley.
• Scottish Junior Traveller trophy: Finlay Ritchie.
• Scottish Junior Girls Traveller trophy: Clarissa Jackson.
• Bob Airlie Memorial trophy (1st non-squad sailor): Finlay Ritchie
• Rookie trophy (highest ranking sailor who competed in the Travellers for the first time): Elsie Munro.

Attention now turns to the summer Optimist events, and a good number of Scottish Optimists will be at the UK Nationals in Weymouth. Before that, there is a pre-nationals training weekend at Largs on 15th-16th July.

The 2023-2024 series of Travellers races will start at Bardowie Loch on August 19th-20th, followed by Aberdeen and Stonehaven YC on September 2nd-3rd.