Sailtastic Summer at Dalgety Bay Sailing Club
by Keith Bedborough 11 Sep 2018 13:18 BST
Special Saturday at Dalgety Bay Sailing Club © Diana Davidson
As usual Dalgety Bay Sailing club has served up a packed schedule over the summer months with fantastic sailing conditions and amazing mild (dare I say warm) conditions especially by Scottish standards! Here are just some of the highlights.
The 26th annual Youth Week was a huge success from 6-10th August with 48 sailors taking part and fantastic conditions on offer throughout the week. DBSC has always encouraged youth sailing at the club and this ethos has made this a fantastic week to be at the club and involved with plenty of games and fun to be had alongside the real work of learning/improving sailing. The sunshine and fair to strong winds (with only the occasional squall) kept both sailors and instructors on their toes. A huge thanks to Kirsty Brunton who after 20 years has decided she has (without doubt) done her "bit" for youth week and will move onto new challenges elsewhere – good luck Kirsty and stay in touch!
On 11th & 12th August the newly formed foiling section of the club organised the inaugural Waszp RAID – billed as "chance to take part in a long distance race around one of the iconic structures in the British Isles along with your mates in the most talked about foiler in years". With 9 of these exciting boats in attendance, and support from the SailingFast regatta team this was a great event which included boat tuning and setup, on the water training and video sessions and a barbeque all included. We hope to see this section of the club increase in size as more people embrace this new type of sailing which is becoming more accessible (and affordable!).
Next up there was a fantastic performance from a 24-strong Team DBSC at the RYA Scottish Club Trophy at Loch Tummel on Saturday 18th August. DBSC won this event overall, winning 3 out of the 4 dinghy classes. There were class victories for Ben Homer (Optimist), Isla Mclellan (Tera) and Orri Robertson (Topper) with a number of others getting medals or being very close. Conditions were tricky with some big squalls coming down Loch Tummel and plenty of swimming practice going on and all the team did an amazing job to make it round the course. It was also a pleasure to see the team pull together shore-side, with sailors and parents all helping with the logistics of getting 23 boats and all the sailors to such a fantastic event.
On August 25th Ian Baillie hosted one of the clubs quarterly "Special Saturdays". These popular events are sort of halfway between a training event and a regatta. A series of short fun races, with the focus on enjoyment and developing skills (pinsharp boatcraft required to collect a sweety each time you sail past the rescue boat) rather than fierce competition. The weather was perfect and everyone had a brilliant time – many thanks Ian !
And it's not just about dinghies – also on 25th August two boats from Dalgety Bay entered the Bad Cup, the annual white sail match race between the local clubs of Aberdour, Burnt Island and Dalgety Bay. PoleStar with Skipper Rob and his crew and BlueMoon with single handed skipper Glenn. It was a fairly busy start line off Aberdour harbour with 11 entries. A brisk wind and sunshine took the boats around the course with the event being won by Burnt Island. The Dalgety Bay boats took 6th and 8th places.
Finally the club's annual regatta over 1st & 2nd September was again a success – this time a slightly more select invite list featured the Scottish Laser Masters and the Scottish RS Tera Championships. Both classes had fantastic close racing and congratulations are due to our very own Laser Masters Champion Ian Baillie. Over on the Tera fleet it was great to again see so many travellers supporting this event and the parents all mucking in to help with rescue and other duties. On the water there was some fantastic performances and congratulations go to winners Tilda Brayshaw (RS Sport) and James Johnson (RS Tera). Big thanks to Robbie Wilson for taking "time out" from retirement to help us with Tera logistics (and controlling the Tera parents – the kids were fine!).
The club is now looking forward to Bart's Bash on 16th September which is always well supported - and then all eyes will be on the autumn series races. Before long it will be the run up to the annual celebration in November where it is hoped Chief Master Of Ceremonies Haydock's wit and humour will somehow surpass even last year's sparkling performance.