2009 Junior Club Champion Rory Hunter

Arran Yacht Club is also the home of Arran Junior Sailing Club. AJSC was set up to teach sailing to children of Primary 7 upwards at school on the Island.

It has over 60 cadets each year and operates during the summer term and through the first half of the autumn term, It has rescue boats and a fleet of dinghies from small Taz  2 man starter boats through Picos, 2 man performance Feva XL’s and even a couple of Wayfarers and a GP14.

Arran Junior Sailing Club is a totally separate, self-sufficient organisation with its own financial arrangements and committee, many of whom are also involved with the Yacht Club.

Club Championship 2009
 

This year the battle for Junior Champion was settled between the brothers Hunter. Over 2 weeks and 5 races they shared 1st and 2nd place between them with the reigning Champion Neil Hunter relegated to four 2nd places and one 1st while his younger brother Rory took one 2nd and four 1st's. Rory is making a habit of this because the previous Saturday with his Uncle crewing he won the Summer Novice Cup round the John Thomson Quaich course while taking 3rd Place overall in that race and earlier in the year won the Junior Pladda Cup.

Six of the junior sailors took part in the Club Championship and with fresh winds on the first day and light winds on the second they had to use all their skills and seamanship.  At the end of Day two the results were:- 1st Rory Hunter

          2nd Neil Hunter

          3rd Barney Crockett

          4th Colin MacKenzie

          5th Equal, Robert Armstrong and Robert Ingham

Arran Junior Sailing Club Invades England

Rory Hunter with his crew Scott Currie and Neil Hunter with crew Erin Mills from Loch Tummel Sailing Club travelled 480 miles south, with Iain Hunter, to Hayling Island towing two AJSC Fevas dinghies to compete in their first RS Feva National Championships as the only Scottish entries. In total 120 boats were entered from all over the British Isles, Italy and Holland but to their disappointment all racing on Saturday was cancelled because of winds gusting up to 30 knots. The two Arran crews decided it was no worse than a winter Sunday sail in Scotland and decided to go out for a “blast” along with 8 other crews to get the feel of the waters down in the south.

On Sunday the wind had moderated a bit but although 4 races were planned they only raced 3 because many of the crews were exhausted from the 17 to 21 knot winds still blowing. At the end of the day Rory and Scott were in 30th place and Neil and Erin in 65th place. On Monday the wind was light and only two of the three Gold fleet races were held and the Silver fleet had racing abandoned after one race.

Final results were that Rory and Scott were 38th out of 60 in the top Gold fleet and Neil and Erin were 30th out of 60 in the Silver Fleet. This is a real credit to both crews as to race against 60 boats all trying to cross the start line together when you are used to sailing at club level against less than ten boats is pretty intimidating. Their fellow competitors were a mixture of  other first timers, more experienced old hands, all adult or parent and child crews and some already in elite sailing squads being groomed for Olympic and International Competitions. Thanks go to Visit Arran and the John Merrick Sailing Trust for their sponsorship of this not inexpensive trip to Hayling Island and also their travel to the summer races round Scotland in the Scottish Feva traveller series.