University of York Students’ Union

Harri Condie, Race Captain

"There are many opportunities for people of all abilities to compete for the University of York at sailing. This year we have a competitive mix of experienced sailors and enthusiastic beginners spread across two teams."

If you are interested in competing on a team, please feel free to e-mail the club with your name and details of sailing experience, if you have any. Also, join the club mailing list here to make sure that you're updated with all the essential information.

Roses

Well done to both the firsts and seconds, who won 3-0 and 2-0 respectively at Roses in week 2, contributing 6 points for York. The women's exhibition race was called off due to lack of wind.

Roses '07

Team Racing

Most of the competitions York enter are team racing events, but what is team racing? At University level, team racing consists of two teams, where each team has three boats.

The aim is to ensure the boats on your team finish in the highest possible places by using the rules of sailing to hinder the opposing team. With this in mind it easy to see why team races are generally quite short (lasting minutes rather than hours), aggressive and exhilarating.

Good boathandling skill and sound tactical knowledge define a good team racer, we've got several experienced team racers at the club, so if you know how to race then we can teach you some team racing tactics very quickly.

For any beginners interested in racing don't be put off, as at least 2 or 3 people on the teams each year are beginners and all it takes is an enthusiastic attitude and an open mind!

Useful introductory team racing information can be found on the International Sailing Federation website.

If you would like to see some videos of team races, head over to media, where there is a selection of videos from one of our training sessions.

York University 1st VI at Roses, 2007.

Events

Some consider events as the highlight of sailing at university, as the chance to meet like minded people from other universities combined with two days of racing makes for a great weekend! Each event is hosted by a university sailing club with teams from alround the country travelling there to compete. At present York does not hold an event, but there is hope that one will be held in the not too distant future.

The 2007/2008 schedule included:
- Leeds Halloween Howler
- Sheffield Shindig
- Liverpool Lash
- Durham Dambuster
- BUSA Qualifiers - West Kirby SC
- ANUSC Team Racing Championships - Manchester
- BUSA Playoffs - Bardowie SC
- Roses

In 2006/2007 York competed in the following events with 1-2 teams:

- Leeds Halloween Howler
- The Big 'M' (Manchester)
- Loughborough Laser
- BUSA Qualifiers - West Kirby SC
- Durham Dambuster
- BUSA Playoffs - Bardowie SC
- ANUSC Team Racing Championships - Sheffield
- SUSA Team Racing Championsips
- Roses

Training

Training takes place at Beaver Sailing Club, not far from Castleford and Selby, and is held twice a week during the first two terms. Wednesday afternoon and Saturday are the days generally designated for training, weather permitting.

At Beaver SC we have a fleet of 7 Laser 2's, with the trapezes and spinnakers removed in line with the rules of team racing.