GUSummerC

GUSC aren’t the type of people to get off the water just because the academic year has finished. We’ve had a lot going on over the summer in all sections of the club.

In April, our own Alasdair Ireland travelled to Barbados to represent the UK at the GP14 World Championships. In a field of over 100 boats, including multiple national champions, world champions and Olympians, he finished in the top 30 overall, and was second under-21 sailor. Not bad for his first event in the class.

Ally Ireland competing in Barbados

Ally and his co-captain Stephen also travelled to Lake Garda at the beginning of September to take part in the 420 Team Racing Worlds, with Ally as captain and Stephen as coach. They narrowly missed out on a medal after a great performance.

Ally representing Team GBR at the 420 team racing world championships in Italy

At the start of June, we had the main event of the summer, our Mediterranean cruise with Summer Sail Week. Over 150 sailors from across Scotland, 50 from GUSC, descended on Corfu for a week of exploring the Greek coastline in blazing sunshine and perfect sailing conditions. The idyllic sailing during the day, followed by some fantastic nights out, meant that everyone, from the most experienced sailors to people who had never set foot on a boat before, had a fantastic time.

GUSC Sailors enjoying Corfu

The yachting team have also been in action at the Two-Boat team racing championships at RNCYC in Helensburgh. An inexperienced Glasgow team missing many of our more experienced sailors managed to secure 3rd place.

Glasgow in action in Helensburgh

The summer was capped off by a strong performance at the UK Sonar Nationals, also held on the Clyde at Helensburgh. A GUSC team of Ally Ireland, Peter Collings, Greg Southall and Griogair MacFarlane started slowly but gelled over the course of the event to secure the bronze medal position, in spite of never having sailed as a team before.