Helensburgh Sailing Club hosted the 2010 Zones Championships, where Fin, Fraser and Angus had their first taste of sailing in a national event.  The wind was lighter than our Force 8 Warriors would have preferred, but the guys had a great weekend and came home shattered, but infintely more experienced in light-wind, extreme tide conditions!

After a presentation and talk about the expectations of being a Zone Squad-member, the 34-strong Topper fleet took to the water with another 69 boats to prepare for the days racing.  The fleet sailed two miles off-shore to the race-course, where the force 2 wind decreased to a 1 just in time for the 5 minute gun!  Four races had been planned, but after nearly 7 hours on the water, the fourth race was cancelled due to total lack of puff.  The boys used all their skills to get around the course, and did very well in the light airs and extremely strong tidal conditions. All performed well, with Fin and Angus drawing on 48 and Fraser coming up just behind with 56.  Unfortunately, sailing on the Sunday was cancelled at lunchtime , again due to complete lack of wind, so the boys de-rigged the boats, packed up and headed for lunch! The boys have a wee wait now before they find out whether their bid to join the Squads was successful, but all have everything crossed.  When asked what the lessons learned over the weekend were, they replied, 'find out who is the best and stick to him or her like glue from the start ' and 'take more food with us in the boats!'  That's our boys!  Well done guys!

A big thanks goes to Helensburgh Sailing Club for hosting an excellent weekend