IOCA(Scotland) - the home of Optimist Sailing in Scotland
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Welcome to the home for Optimist Sailors in Scotland.
You'll find us scattered around the length and breadth of Scotland - from St Mary's Loch in the south, to Invergordon in the north, via the Clyde, the Forth and several inland lochs. This is a loose, friendly gathering. If you fancy some new scenery, and a warm welcome, why not join us? Helms should be IOCA / RYA grade 2 or above for traveller's events. Grade 3 is recommended for coastal waters. Events are normally split into a coached regatta fleet for those new to racing, and a main fleet. All the traveller events are Open Events run by the host club, and are typically two day events. Racing is normally Saturday lunchtime to mid afternoon Sunday.
Main fleet boats are expected to be fully measured and certified: regatta fleet boats do not need formal measurement certificates, but should be seaworthy.
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| The Scottish Contingent: Tom, Drew and Callum 2008 Braassemermeer Easter Regatta © Copyright Iain Airlie |
 | 11:29 09 Mar 10 by Iain A | Venue Guides Bardowie and Weymouth have been updated. If anybody has additions, corrections, deletions, or information ona ny of our other venues, please email the information to me (webmaster {at} scottish-optimsits.org.uk - deliberate anti-spam typo needs to be corrected), and I'll update (or generate) the appropriate page! |
| 11:24 09 Mar 10 by Alec L | Building The Fleet(s) More sailors at clubs, more clubs, younger sailors aged 7-10
Teach new sailors to sail.
Then to race/obtain boats.
Strong local flotillae are the essential starting point, the more
the better.
Spring early season race training in Oppies at:
SLSC coach James WEDs at 1600 from MAR
10
CCC Robert and
Amy TUEs at 1900 from
APR 6
HSC/RNCYC
KSW WEDs at 1700, tbc DBSC Lynn WEDs at 1900 from MAY,
tbc
LSC Dean WEDs at 1700 from APR
13
I have selected the clubs above on the basis of where our coaches are at
various times of the season coming. Sailors may choose to travel to a venue that
is geographically convenient. So, for example, LLSC and DBSC sailors may choose
to be at CCC in APR and/or MAY, Toward SC may have sailors at Largs early
season. Normally membership of that club will be necessary though cadet rates
generally reasonable. (At Strathclyde Loch SLSC membership is desirable but not
mandatory.) The chosen evenings generally reflect club midweek race evenings and
Oppie racing activity will bolster attendance, so good for clubs!
More isolated clubs may prefer to bring a racing coach to their clubs for
weekend training sessions. Distance not a problem. For example James will be
working at Loch Insh from early APR and could develop Oppie racing at Lochs
Morlich and Tummel (not that the latter needs much help!), Chanonry and
A&StonehavenYC. Lynn is at university in Edinburgh till JUN so ideally
placed to help Forth clubs. Other coaches could travel to Loch Lomond, Toward,
Rothesay, Prestwick, Annandale, Loch Craignish, basically anywhere, to
supplement local programmes. I can supply contact details. Please let me know
how IOCA Scotland can help Oppie race development at your club. (event.coord (at) scottish-optimists.org.uk)
Coach fees are reasonable and negotiable. Personally I suggest £20 per
evening session, £50 per day, plus transport costs, divided by numbers on the
water. Of course this is a subject for individual clubs and groups of parents to
work out for themselves.
And, please note, no mention of the word Traveler! Don't want new parents
to feel pressurised into lots of galivanting about Scotland. Perish the
thought!!
Good Sailing!
Alec |
| 11:15 09 Mar 10 by Alec L | Scottish Optimist Sponsorship JP Watersports are our first Scottish Oppie sponsors. They won't be
the last!
Sponsored kit for the Scottish Optimist Squad 2010
Sponsored prizes for top three every Trav this season 2010
25% discount for Gul gear for all Oppie sailors who are racing on the Trav
circuit 2010 |
12:08 06 Mar 10 by Iain A | Inland Championship Entry should now be open. Note that numbers are limited - and Regatta Fleet is smaller than in the past. Book now! | |
13:06 05 Mar 10 by Iain A | It's back! Forum link fixed Obviously not a popular link - since nobody said it was broken. The Beach Banter page links you to the IOCA(UK) Members Forums - and starts off in Scotland. The main IOCA site moved server - and I forgot to update the link. It is now back working again... | |
16:31 04 Mar 10 by Alan Henderson | Lanarkshire sailors head for Bahrain! Alasdair Logan (13) from
Motherwell and Emma Brown (13) from Wishaw are set for a trip of a lifetime this
summer. Alasdair and Emma will fly to Bahrain as part of the Lanarkshire team to
compete at the International Children’s Games 2010. Alasdair and Emma will be
part of a Lanarkshire team of 20 athletes taking part in various
sports.
Alasdair will be sailing
an Optimist dinghy, while Emma will sail the Laser 4.7. This is the first time
that sailing has been included as a sport in the International Children’s Games,
but it will certainly not be the last!
Because in 2011
Lanarkshire will be the proud hosts of this prestigious event, and the
Lanarkshire organizers have already decided that sailing will again be included
in the Games. In 2011 Strathclyde Park will host the sailing event, while the
new Regional Indoor Sports Centre being built on the Ravenscraig site will host
badminton and judo, and the other sports will be spread around Lanarkshire’s
many facilities.
The 2010 ICG will be in
Bahrain in July. A selection event was held at Strathclyde Park on February
13th, sailed in Picos, to pick the two person Lanarkshire team to go to Bahrain
this year. 24 young sailors attended the selection event, watched by RYA
Scotland’s Nick Scott. Alasdair and Emma were selected for the 2010
team. Average daily temperatures in Bahrain during the event will
be a modest 40C hotter than at the Selector!
The young pair will be
blazing a trail abroad for Lanarkshire sailing, but back home a big effort is
being planned this year to train more young people to sail, and to then have a
strong group of sailors from which to pick the team for the 2011
Games.
The plan is to develop a
six person Lanarkshire squad of Optimist sailors, and another squad of Laser 4.7
sailors over the summer. Those two squads of racers will then train over next
winter so that there is a pool o | |
17:32 01 Mar 10 by Iain A | Yes - it's silly Season! Time to get the diary out, and decide which events you are going to attend. Entries for the IOCA Team Selection trials and the first 2 Scottish Travellers went live today. Entries for the first of the UK ranking events - the Inlands at Grafham Water - will go live real soon now. Be warned: Regatta Fleet fills up fast, so if you are thinking about it then don't ponder too long. It is likely that Regatta Fleet at the Nationals will be oversubscribed - and preference will go to those who have been seen at the Inlands. Closer to home, the Bardowie Traveller is back. An ideal location for the first event - 20 mins from the M8, and an experienced management team. An ideal place to join the fleet or the support team. Parental support is needed to help run all of our events - the only people that receive a small stipend are the regatta fleet coaches. The sooner the sailors register, the sooner the support requirements can be finalised! And if you don't want the galley to run out of bacon butties - they need to know how many people are going to arrive... Good luck for the new season! | |
08:14 28 Jan 10 by Alec | Spring is Sprung! Down at the Strathclyde Loch this afternoon and finally, after more than
a month, the wind round to the NW, the temperature in two figures, and the ice
breaking up. So All Systems Go for this SUN - weather forecast perfect, 10 kt
NW, sunny!!. Rigged and ready at 1300. For those of you wanting to race first
start at 1000. Coaches this weekend will be James and Lynn. I'm in Weymouth so
IOCA Scotland Enforcer will be the small but impossibly handsome Bill Fowler who
promises to turn up in his wife's new Fiat 500 Convertible!!!! (And I made that
bit up.)
Always useful to know who is coming - therefore Register NOW at http://www.scottish-optimists.org.uk/eventsite.html
The intention is to run four consecutive SUNs through FEB. All sailors
inc Squaddies all welcome. There will be a guest appearance one SUN from Nick
Scott (RYAS High Performance Director), and another session with John Blair from
Scottish National Rowing Academy re sailing fitness.
Cost only £20 for SUNs x4, so cost effective even if you can only attend
one!
I repeat, REGISTER NOW!!
Hey Hoh!!
Alec | |
11:38 15 Jan 10 by Iain A | Boat Show Presentation As you probably know, Callum was voted Scottish Young Sailor of the Year 2009. This made him a finalist for the YJA Young Sailor of the Year competition, sponsored by Pantaenious Yacht Insurance. The presentation was held at the London Boat Show on Saturday 9th, and we were guests of Pantaenious for the day. A slightly challenging start to our journey (the Scottish equivalent of Ice Road Truckers!), and the forecast suggested that the best route was down the west coast: A7, M6, M6 toll, M1, M25, M11. Yes, we saw plenty of snow. No, it wasn't a major issue. Scottish Borders Council and Dumfries and Galloway Council had managed to keep the main routes open - even if snow tyres would have been really useful at times. A slightly longer journey thant usual saw us arrive at the Docklands Travelodge in time for supper. This Travelodge has one of the new Bar-Cafes - reasonable food at sensible prices - and I suppose the bar tariff was not too outrageous for London. Our day started by meeting the RYA media team at the main entrance to collect our tickets. Then off to the RYA lounge for coffee, welcome and briefing. New jackets were handed out to the finalists courtesy of Pantaenious for the photo calls. A very full timetable for Callum: photo calls with sponsors, deck games, lunch and presentation left a whole hour of free time to actually see the show! Parents/chaperones etc were free until lunch. This year Ben Ainslie was presenting the awards: 13 years after he won it! The award ceremony started at 17:00 and we were free to leave shortly after 18:30. A long day, busy, but quite satisfying. We were very glad that the Squad session had been cancelled - and that the promised snow didn't arrive! Not that London really knows what snow is... | |
15:26 05 Jan 10 by Iain A | Sailing Honours I'm sure some of you will have noticed already: John Derbyshire has been awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours. Full article from the RYA press machine is here For those of you new to Oppies, John was an Oppie parent until last year. Not too suprisingly Harry is quite a good sailor, was part of last year's Oppie European's team, and is now to be found on the 420 circuit. | |
10:11 04 Jan 10 by Alasdair Ireland | 2010 Season Underway! After Strathclyde Loch was frozen off and Largo Bay (2 Jan) cancelled due to a poor forecast, it was 3rd time lucky for those Oppy sailors looking for a festive regatta in Scotland. Largs SC hosted their New Year Race on Sun 3 Jan in light winds under bright blue sky. Race Officer John Ridley managed to run 2 races in these testing conditions, and with short legs placing a premium on mark rounding there were plenty of place changes during the close racing, before everyone retired ashore for pie and beans. Alasdair Ireland won both races, taking the prize for first Oppy and winning the Handicap class. Hamish Taylor was second overall, followed by Nicollo Vetta and Sophie Taylor.  | |
11:32 01 Jan 10 by Iain A | Happy New Year I couldn't resist a 'traditional' style new year photograph:  Taken at 11:15, with snow coming down. For those travelling, 'safe home'. Happy New Year, and good luck with the 2010 season. | |
11:53 22 Dec 09 by Iain A | Merry Christmas from Volvo and Musto If you haven't seen it on the IOCA(UK) site, Volvo and Musto have produced a round up of 2009. I think it requires quicktime to view it. 2009 roundup movie: Click Here | |
22:51 17 Dec 09 by Iain A | Trasnporting an Oppie Another reference page for your delectation and delight; Transporting an Oppie. Available from the menu: About Oppies > Transporting an Oppie. This is the distilled knowledge from over 6 years of transporting these boats around Scotland, the UK and the continent. It is by no means encyclopaedic - but is your 'starter for 10'. Any old hands with details to add please provide your knowledge: any questions, please ask. | |
15:01 16 Dec 09 by Iain A | New Met Office Weather Widget | |
13:12 21 Sep 09 by dumbledore | Content Management The news is now held in our database, so it is easier for the site to be managed. This also means you don't need to know html to be able to enter articles, although it helps! The 'new' icon indicates articles created (or edited) within the last week. |
