It’s a breeze for Gairloch Juniors at the Gunn Trophy
The Gunn Trophy is a Topper sailing event for juniors (anyone of school age), held by Lochcarron Sailing Club in September each year. It’s fairly described as a fun racing event and certainly enjoys a healthy degree of friendly competition!
Gairloch Boat club were this year represented by a four strong team of our budding racers on September 19th when Iain Nelson, Sean Quinn, Morven Mclean and Roddy McRae took three boats south to the rather calm shores of Loch Carron. The morning was spent preparing boats, trying to psych-out other teams, being towed across the loch practicing Mexican waves & making new friends. There was also some pretty impressive stone skimming across the loch whilst waiting for the promised wind to arrive, which eventually some did, just in time for the lunch time barbeque.
Once fed & watered, a light but building wind allowed the racing to begin and 24 boats with 27 sailors in teams of three from Skye, Plockton, Lochcarron & Gairloch crossed the start line and jostled for lead place in the first of the day’s four races. In such light winds, strategy was critical, as where and when to tack, steal wind from each other and position boats on the approach to course marks all made a difference. The wind may not have led to fast racing, but it certainly allowed for a very competitive and sociable day, as sailors who hadn’t previously met, chatted away to each other whilst working to eek out that extra fraction of a knot to pass fellow racers.
Our team members all sailed very well at different times in the races however we left room for improving our placing next year when we hope to enter two teams and give the competition something to think about. Congratulations to Lochcarron’s A team for winning the event this year, but watch out for Gairloch next year!
Huge thanks are due to David Murray and all at Lochcarron Sailing Club for organising & staging this fantastic event with such enthusiasm and efficiency and for bringing together young sailors from across the area for such an enjoyable event.
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