End of Season awards for ROTTERs at Ripon Sailing Club
by Lucy Priest 14 Oct 2025 07:43 UTC
With almost no wind forecast for Saturday's ROTTERS the stress levels were high in the organising team, though this did at least mean there was no need to plan for an early start in the morning.
Several of the regular ROTTERS were absent this month, with excuses ranging from Yr 6 high school visits and drama rehearsals to broken bones, but there were still enough sailors for three training groups while the first world problem of too many duplicate names keeps getting worse as more sailors join us.
Although the main aim of this session was to race for the Towers Cup it was clear there wasn't going to be any racing done in the morning. The Oppy race group started out by looking at rigging and rig set up with Chris H, with some of the parents also taking the opportunity to listen in for some top tips. Having all the boats set up side by side also allowed for some rig comparisons, solving the mystery of the training sail that didn't fit.
The non-Oppy race group decided to follow the University sailors example and go out for some roll tacking practice, only to find that there wasn't really enough wind even for that in a lot of the lake. Meanwhile the beginner group were sent to practice their knots before launching for some very slow sailing close to the jetties.
The Oppy race group then launched and drifted out into the middle of the lake to practice picking up a tow line and being towed on a long line, which at least gave them an easy ride back to the jetties before lunch.
As the clouds had cleared and it was warming up there was some hope of a breeze building in the afternoon, but the point of the day was to race so it was decided to break out the paddles, mix the groups up and run some paddling races. Sure enough a light breeze did then start to pick up and settle and soon enough a short race course was set, rigs were being put into Oppies and they were off.
The wind stayed light and flukey throughout, and certainly did not favour the faster boats, with the Oppies dominating the results. Archie T took two easy wins to take the Towers Cup, staying out of the pack at marks and proving that shouting about Minecraft really does not make your boat go faster, while Jasper L took home the Mini Helm trophy for sailors still at primary school with two third places.
A special mention has to go to Oscar Y for completing his first ever race in the first race of the day and further shout outs to Jamie and Theo B (not that Theo B, the other Theo B!) for their first solo sailing efforts.
After a final paddling race to finish off the day it was time to get boats packed away ready for the end of season awards, the event prize-giving, and of course the food. Over the season all our young sailors have been working towards various ROTTERS awards, ranging from the Pirate award for those too young to sail independently up to the Senior Race Squad and Coach awards and the prize table looked spectacular with the all the awards t-shirts laid out ready to be presented.
The awards were over and done with fairly quickly, with many thanks given to all the youth sailors and parents who have given their time to making session after session a success and there was just time to grab some photos of the rainbow of ROTTERS before they all descended on the bring and share buffet.
ROTTERS continues through the winter, with the next session on Saturday 1st November.