On the 18th and 19th of February Ladies teams from both ANUSC and SUSA regions descended upon Bardowie Loch for the BUSA ladies qualifier.
The 6 teams from ANUSC were Cambridge, Durham, Leeds, Loughborough, Manchester and Nottingham.
SUSA had 5 teams; Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and 2 Glasgow teams.
The stage was set, the two regions would compete separately, pools were drawn to decide which region would receive which boats. ANUSC drew the Lazer II’s and SUSA received the Larks.
Unfortunately the wind was non existent on the Saturday morning. A decision was made by myself (ANUSC chair), Caroline Beveridge (SUSA Chair), Alastair Gordon (race officer) and umpires (Alistair Angus, Alan Cassles, Martin Nichols) to postpone until 1pm when we would make a decision whether to cancel the racing for the day.
By 12.30 breeze appeared to arrive so at 1pm after the briefing the teams were told to get changed and get ready to go sailing. This was met with a few anguished faces as the wind had still not quite filled in.
By the time the First race was ready to start the wind was perfect for team racing.
SUSA managed to complete all of their races, helped by the withdrawal of Glasgow B, their results are as follows:
1st Edinburgh.
2nd Glasgow A.
3rd Dundee
4th Aberdeen
5th Glasgow B
ANUSC however managed to complete all but 3 races, With Durham in the lead closely followed by Cambridge. Manchester and Loughborough were equal with 2 wins each, Nottingham had one win, but had managed to accumulate less points than both Manchester and Loughborough, Leeds although hadn’t won a race were still very competitive and if umpires decisions had went their way then results could have been very different. This shows how even the regions teams are.
Sunday arrived and again the wind had decided not to show. Luckily this was intended as a joint region training day as well as a reserve in case all the racing wasn’t completed. Nicole Johnson led the coaching team of Griogair Whyte, John Murray and umpires Alistair Angus, Alan Cassles and Martin Nichols for some on shore teaching. This covered tactics, rules and setting up training exercises to run at their own team training days.
Unfortunately the elements were against us, at 2pm the decision was made, racing was cancelled.
The crucial races left between the ANUSC universities will be sailed on the 15th of March at Foremark reservoir, co-organised by Loughborough and Nottingham universities, this will also incorporate another training session but on the water in Fireflys.
The event was a great success even though it wasn’t fully completed. Many teams have decided to arrange joint training sessions and share resources with each other. Events like this can only encourage the development of sailing in the North and Scotland, hopefully in future years we can establish this event as a major part in the ladies team racing calendar.
A huge thank you must go to all those who helped organise this event. Especially Glasgow University for hosting, and organising such fantastic socials.
Ben Towell (ANUSC Chairman)