Shetland & Orkney Sailing 

This group represents the interests of the sailing community in Shetland & Orkney, and is working towards developing links not only with the relevant parts of the local authorities, but also with Active Schools and sports development. The goal is to raise the profile of sailing across both Orkney and Shetland, and encourage greater participation at all levels.

A very successful Shetland and Orkney Sailing Training event was held in Lerwick boating club last weekend. Shetland and Orkney Sailing is a new organisation, sponsored by the RYA, and designed to promote links between areas within Scotland. 



A training weekend and Junior Intercounty were held last year. Three courses were held over 28th & 29th April, and trainees involved sailors from Aith, Brae, Lerwick and Walls, as well as four members of the Windsurfing Club.



On Saturday, RYA Regional Race Officer Iona Cornish, from the Royal Findhorn Yacht Club, had six trainees juggling flags, stopwatches, hooters and clip-boards as they learned the duties of a Club Race Officer.  SOS Vice-Chair Orcadian Brian Kynoch had eight First Aid trainees, and one dinghy Instructor was revalidating his certificate with Sailing Development Group Co-ordinator Ewan Stirling.  At the end of the day, all agreed that it had been intensive, but very worthwhile.

Sunday was practical work for the Race Officer trainees, and a glorious day for it too.  Eight hardy volunteers from Lerwick

Boating Club rigged their boats to be ‘guinea-pigs’, and four races were run, with the trainees taking a different role for each.  The first two races were triangles, with Darren Forrest’s Fireball winning each.The second two were ‘windward-leeward’ courses, which are now popular down south, but haven’t been used in Shetland before.  These have a long beat, a separator bouy and a long down-wind leg.  This course made for intense, tactical racing, with a close duel between the two Fireballs, skippered by Darren Forrest and David Grant, but the winner of both races on handicap was Kenny

Leask’s Flying Fifteen. This change of winner showed the

trainee Race Officers the importance of offering a variety of courses, as different courses favour different types of boats.

There are a number of SOS events planned for this summer.  These include a national Olympic-themed ‘Sail for Gold’ day on 9th June, in which individual clubs raise the profile of sailing.  There will be a ‘Push the Boat out’ day on Saturday 21 July (Skeld Regatta), and a group of yachts hope to go from there to Westray Regatta, in Orkney. 

A Racing Coach level 2 Course for Orkney and Shetland sailors will be held in Shetland on 29/30 September, and the following weekend is the Scottish Junior Championships weekend.  The Orkney/Shetland junior sailing intercounty will be held in Orkney that weekend.

The committee of SOS would like to thank Iona Cornish, Brian Kynoch and Ewan Stirling for tutoring during the weekend, the Lerwick Boating Club for their hospitality, and the sailors who

came to race.

SOS Chair Marsali Taylor commented, ‘It was a very enjoyable weekend for everyone.  It’s exciting making links between clubs. It

really opens out what young sailors here in Shetland can do.’

This group has been in existence since May 2010, and the most recent meeting of this group took place on 8th February 2012, and the notes are on the right handside of this page.

There is also a calendar for the communities in Shetland and Orkney to share their sailing events on, again, click on the right hand side of this page. For those running events, please add your activities to the calendar as often as you can.

Links to relevant organisations in both Shetland & Orkney are also on the right hand side of this page.







The Sailing Development Group Co-ordinator for Shetland & Orkney Sailing is Ewan Stirling, and he can be contacted on sdg4@ryascotland.org.uk. Ewan's role is predominantly based around developing activity, and he can provide you with information on where to go sailing in both Shetland and Orkney.

Do take a look at the Operational Plan for this group, where you will see the plans for 2012/13 and intentions for delivering activity.