Smiles and sunshine for Team Scotland at the Eric Twiname Champs

It was far warmer than we expected in Rutland as the 34 Scots sailors travelled to the Eric Twinname Championship over the weekend of 4-6th May.

Organised by the RYA in conjunction with the Eric Twiname Trust, the Championship encourages junior sailors to race and represent their region or home country.

This year 284 boats were on the water, with 308 sailors taking part across 10 classes.

The event is sailed within British Youth Sailing recognised junior classes, Optimist, RS Tera, RS Feva and Topper dinghies, as well as four different rig sizes of Techno windsurfer. The weather certainly made for some challenges for the teams afloat, with light and variable winds keeping everyone alert to opportunities to get racing underway. 

Delivering a new format of short course racing of the weekend, with target times of 10 minutes, the race management team enabled a remarkable 148 races to be sailed.

RYA Scotland’s Robin Nicol was coach liaison on the windsurfing fleet committee vessel. He said:

“The new format sprint courses were fun, with the length of the beat sometimes being the same as the length of the start line. It was good being with three other very knowledgeable race officers onboard and see how to implement some of the new formats.

“The Scots windsurfers did very well with 3 girls and 3 medals across their classes. The team all really got behind Lili Szincsak who was competing for the first time in the 4.5 class and medalled which was awesome.”

Jamie Rogers, RYA Scotland Pathway Sailing Officer was on the water with the Feva, Tera and Optimist fleets. Jamie noted a: “really good vibe across the board this weekend.

"Particularly impressed at how the teams interacted and supported each other. The home countries in particular were really close, potentially as a result of the Celtic cup earlier in the year, which was nice to hear.” 

The Junior championships are named in memory of legendary sailor, author, and journalist Eric Twiname.

Twiname made his name in sailing by winning numerous national titles in a range of dinghy classes. His regatta is regarded by many young racers as a rite of passage as they compete to become top-level racers.

Please find the full results for the weekend and massive congratulations to the RYA North region who triumphed overall.