05/09/2026
OPTIMIST NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AT LARGS SAILING CLUB – THE VIDEO – AND OUR AMAZING VOLUNTEERS!
We welcomed some of the country's most talented young sailors in the first week of August for the Optimist Nationals. In total, 163 sailors from across the UK and a strong contingent from Ireland enjoyed five days of very competitive sailing – and Scottish hospitality!
The event opened with a parade led by Largs piper Harris Park, and through the week, competitors experienced a mix of challenging tides, and sometimes shifting breezes, against the background of our amazing scenery.
The 111 competitors in the main fleet competed 12 races, with Jonny Rogers of Royal Lymington YC topping the gold fleet becoming overall champion. The silver section of the main fleet was led home by Kit McCarthy of Parkstone YC. After 16 races, Bear Grube (Warsash / Netley) was the overall regatta fleet winner, and Bethany Beech of Maylandsea Bay / Corinthian Otters topped the podium in the coached regatta fleet, after 8 races and coaching sessions. For a full report, see Yacht and Yachting’s article here, and for results, see here (use the top three links on the page).
The event concluded with prizegiving in the marquee, with grateful thanks to all the many, many volunteers from the Optimist Association, Largs Sailing Club (see below), and sponsors including Rooster Kit, and local sponsors Geraldo's and Nardini's.
LARGS SC VOLUNTEERS
Staging events like this requires a big effort from our amazing army of volunteers – Julia reckons a total of 90 contributed to the week, some for a day or two, others for the full week (or more!).
Of course, the preparation starts with the planning, a year plus in advance, led by our event convenor Jo Turner. Then Jo and our office administrator Julia Gibson pulled teams of volunteers together for all the different elements of the event:
• Slipway cleaning – both our own and the championship slipway were cleaned in late July by nearly 20 volunteers – slipway cleaning was very important as low tides prevailed at the main racing times.
• Set up and preparation – a team of around a dozen prepared all the many marks and ground tackle for the three race courses – and packed it away afterwards.
• Car / trailer / campervan parking – an important first point of contact! Particularly in the mornings, several members from a group of about 8 volunteers would guide arrivals (and local dog walkers!) to vacant spaces.
• Meet and greet – for the first three days, a rota from ~10 members staffed a help desk in the clubhouse, welcoming competitors and parents, and answering all sorts of queries.
• Bar and clubhouse – nearly 25 volunteers manned the bar, kept the tables cleared, and generally tidied up over the week.
• Bridge – the radio comms coordination centre between the three race tracks, beach and clubhouse – had 3 or 4 members on duty at any one time, from a team of 5.
• Beach – 3-4 of our members from a rota of 6+ worked with the Optimist parents to smooth the launching and recovery of the three fleets, from the two slipways, and coordinate the very important safety tallies.
• Committee boats – Howard Smallwood’s Sundowner was main fleet committee boat, with Euroyacht’s demo power boat as finish boat, plus Andy Taylor’s Ellan Vannin for the regatta fleet. Each had 3-4-5 LSC personnel aboard each boat, from a total team of around 20.
• RIB crews – the Optimists themselves provided the majority of support and safety boats, but we had half a dozen of our members in our RIBs as well.
• Largs Yacht Haven staff – not volunteers in their day jobs, of course, but their cooperation is essential to events like this, so many thanks to them.
Note – please don’t add up the numbers in each category to get a total, as it doesn’t total 90! Many members multi-tasked e.g. car parkers would morph into bar staff later in the day, and so on!
A special mention to our young member (and budding entrepreneur) Sam Clark! Sam set up his candy floss machine in our lower hall, where he did a roaring trade after races!
EVENT VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHS
LSC member / dronemaster / chief car parker Martin Beattie has put together an excellent short video of some aspects of the event, which you can see in high quality on YouTube, here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtRPDnoPeGQ). Enjoy!
Credits – Yachts and Yachting (on the water action photos ©oct_films, and some text); general photos – Martin Beattie (video + stills), Aiden Alderson, Joyce Anderson, Gordon Cochrane, Carolyn Elder, Julia Gibson, George Hutchison, Dawn Kyne, Billy McCarlie, Andy Taylor.
