2022 - 2023
DINGHY RACING TEAMS
First Team
James Bishop
James is a tall young buck from Lancashire who studies Vet Med. As one of the many legends from the Solway Yacht Club, he has many years of sailing under his belt and is doing his second year as dinghy captain for the club. With hands the size of shovels, James makes it easy to paddle on the boat when there’s no wind - although not so great for the dogs he “examines” at the vet school. This year will be a great one for James now that he has become fully acquainted with the many types of fire boats - hopefully he won’t try to put a trapeze on any of the fireflies.
Tristan Tucker
Tristan, our First Team Fresher is in his first year of a Marine and Fresh water biology and Archaeology degree. He helms on the first team with crew Mary and loves sailing fast!! With intense knowledge of both yachting and dinghy racing in the American circuit, let’s see how this platinum helm fairs in Scottish seas!
Claire Housey
Claire is a second-year student studying Economics. She is a helm on the first team alongside her crew Ailsa. She is from sunny New Orleans and has lots of experience in fleet racing 29ers and 420s. Whilst adapting to the Scottish weather, Claire hopes to get the team far in the SSS events.
Ailsa Dowd
Ailsa is a second year student studying Earth Sciences, and is from Oban. Previously, Ailsa was on the first team in 2021-2022, and this year she returns to her position as crew for Claire. Growing up sailing on the West Coast led Ailsa to continue her passion for sailing at university. When not sailing, Ailsa enjoys answering questions about Oban’s whiskey as well as socializing with friends. This year she looks forward to making it to playoffs.
Mary Strickland
Mary, our commendable commadore and three year teams veteran is back and faster than ever. After making the rounds of SSS, first team’s resident archaeologist and history student has shown a penchant for digging up lay lines and tactical advantages wherever they may be buried on the course. Alongside her new helm Tristan (who she’s still teaching to rig a firefly) there is a new boat in contention for the Bardowie water-speed record.
Alex Lammie
Alex has made a return to the sailing club for the 2022/23 season. She is an experienced crew, although her most notable sailing quality is her great chat and singing ability. Alex is juggling the pressures of final year Statistics, her commitment as Shinty Captain with sailing but she always makes it out to Bardowie (cough cough). Alex sails with James at the SYC down in Dumfries and Galloway, where they learnt to sail together, they now race an antique Fireball on the Solway, but are more focused on looking good rather than wining any races! Lammie is a great member of the first team, and it was definitely a good decision to return to the best GUSC!
Second Team
Callum Williams
Callum is a third year medic as well as this year’s dinghy captain. Callum has previously sailed toppers then radials. Since Callum is a senior instructor, he brings a wealth of sailing knowledge yet he is still trying to distinguish port from starboard! Callum is looking forward to protesting other teams alongside his crew Alexandra creating a medic team!
Izzy O'Farrell
Izzy is a first-year international relations student and it is not just her first year on teams but her experience of double-handed sailing. The silliest of our first years she uses her sweaty laser sailing knowledge gained from many a year in the Irish Sea to gain an advantage over her opponents. Although she has the tendency to “accidentally” abuse her crew or get distracted by other dashing GUSC sailors on the water.
Ben Salva
Ben previously sailed before uni in a mix of boats mainly fleet racing. He's excited to get into the thick of team racing on 2nd team!
Third Team
Alexandra Murray
Alexandra is a second year medic. She first started sailing on yachts with her family and then completed her Gold Duke of Edinburgh on a sailing expedition in the English Channel. This is her second year on teams, last year she crewed on third team. She is looking forward to another year on teams on the ‘medic boat’ and will be waving her red flag at lot!
Nathan Dickson
Nathan is a third-year economics student, and this is his first year of team racing. Nathan will always stand out with his bright yellow salopettes, combined with his red team beanie. Known for his skilled driving of the minibus, his incredible hip flick during roll tacks and his surplus of bailers. Nathan always comes prepared to events with his crew essentials but will inevitably still receive crew abuse for his lacking personality. He is known for his incredible patience when his helm repeatedly shouts ‘NEEETHAN’ when she doesn’t know if she should set a mark trap. Although not a sweaty laser racer, he still acts like one by watching many YouTube videos and making extensive PowerPoints for his team..
Emily Munro
Emily Munro is a third Year law student and this is her first year competing on teams. She's super excited to win lots of races in the iconic red hats and to party hard with the rest of red team!
Evie Tynan
Evie is our purple team captain and is helming for the first time this year. A second year biochemistry student, this woman in STEM has her eyes set on using her ‘sailing superpowers’ gained from her many crewing years to go and smash first team. Evie fleet raced competitively throughout high school and started team racing last year. Whilst Evie studies genes, her own are broken meaning she can’t eat a long list of foods. This makes team dinners even harder to organise, but her team still love her anyway.
Jennifer Wesley
Jen is a 2nd year vet student and bosun for GUSC. This is her first year on teams and she's excited to see what she can bring to Team Purple with her experienced crew Eugene!
Eilidh Newlands
Eilidh is a second year Civil Engineering with Architecture student and is looking forward to her second year on teams. Off the water, Eilidh likes to play the flute and trip over anything! Eilidh enjoys donning some purple ‘go faster stripes’ at races and along with her crew, Zoe, is keen to get in some good team racing this year.
Dom Burns
‘London' born and bred, Dom has made it to teams at last after finally managing to make it through trials without dislocating his knee. I guess second time’s a charm! After being introduced to sailing at 14, Dom went to on to complete all of his stages and become a DI. Now, he is giving team racing a go on purple team with Evie. You’ll hear the pair laughing all the way from the other side of Bardowie and together, they will dominate the SSS competitions (and any social of course) with hopefully no more injuries along the way!
Eugene Lau
Eugene is a 4th year biovet and treasurer of the sailing club. He started sailing in his first year and now he is an alleged "experienced team racer". He enjoys a good social and will be found executing top quality platinum sailing manoeuvres with his trusty helm, Jen.
Zoe Riemersma
Zoe is in her second year studying Veterinary Medicine. Having previously sailed the high seas of Edinburgh’s Portobello, Zoe is now enjoying her first year in GUSC and crewing for Eilidh. They enjoy sailing together and have some good craic on the boat. Zoe is hoping for some sunshine and a fun year of racing ahead!