Friday night, most of us assembled at the home of pre-lashing, Pierce Peck’s, to endure game after game of slap cup. This game involves concentration, hand-eye coordination, and patience… not qualities that a drunken person will possess. I won’t explain the rules, but if you do not possess these qualities, do not play this game. I can say from experience that it will only end badly.

Anyway, first stop, Vodka revs for some cheap cocktail deals and to meet the rest of SUSA. Second stop, Silk for some outrageously-uncool but completely acceptable dancing into the early hours of the morning.

Saturday morning was an early start. Due to the frozen lake, racing didn’t start until the afternoon, thank god. Some of us were badly hungover and seriously lacking sleep. However we did get some races in, and Edinburgh A, B and C had a good first day of racing. Best part of the day was seeing a Dundonian with his face mashed up because he “fell over on the pavement whilst piggy backing a friend” Result = A night in A&E….. SUUUUUUSAAAAAA

Still desperately hungover from the night before, we soldiered on for the next night’s events. Dress up night! The theme was Evolution, which basically means whatever you want to make of it. Running wild in Pierce’s flat were a mixture of silver robots, some sort of colourful birds, God, an apple, a tree, Jesus, girls wearing cabbages to cover up their private parts, several big bangs, a dinosaur, a bear?? And of course, 4 versions of Trap…. How is that NOT evolution? Once again, a huge consumption of alcohol at pierces, and then off to HMV picture house, where the SUSA crowd’s dancing skills awed the Edinburgh population.

Sunday morning- Once again an early start, except some of the team wouldn’t/ could not wake up. Resulting in Trap driving over to their houses, kicking down their doors, breaking into their houses and dragging them out of bed by their ears… only joking. (Although Ruth T did have to spend the rest of her day in her PJ’s.) We arrived at the Loch to find it frozen over again and Graeme chundering into a bush.

Still very light winds, but very shifty conditions, it was all about getting that good start, and nailing the shifts to secure a good position.

Edinburgh A and B sailed nicely into Gold fleet, whilst C team with 2 team members missing, (and others filling in on and off,) and a very hungover Grahame still sailed very well to make top of silver. A good day for Edinburgh sailing!

However, more importantly, what we’d been waiting for, the dinner and ceilidh at surgeons hall. All dolled up and smartly dressed we sat down to our 3 course meal with our full glasses of wine. And Trap sits down to the table with a glass of ice. Casual. …. Hold on there must be some mistake, why is there a straw? I don’t need a straw to drink my wine? And where’s my fork? And spoon? Okay I’m sure the catering company will realise their mistake. Out comes the soup, it looks lovely. Excuse me waiter, could we get a spoon for this soup? “No miss, apparently you are to drink it with your straw” …. Urrr what?!
“IT’S A RACE, 3..2..1.. GO!!” shouts Trap, whilst he downs his soup in about 5 seconds. The rest of us on the table, still in shock about what is expected of us, moaning about how we wanted a nice civilised meal and burning the roof of our mouths with piping hot soup in the process. There’s tactics to this obviously. Ruin your soup and make it cold and watery with ice, to become the ultimate SUSA soup-drinking champ.
Once the soup course was out of the way, we naïve 1^st years didn’t know what to expect next, were we to eat our dinner head first with no cutlery? Or drink it again? Oh well, at least we had our wine to enjoy… “WINE WAVE!! DOWN IT DOWN IT DOWN IT” pretty sure I was in tears at this point at the thought downing a full glass of expensive red wine, goodbye money.
For the main course we had roast chicken and vegetables, with lots of gravy… I was really hoping we didn’t have to eat this face first. No instead, we had to eat it with only a knife, and with your weaker hand. So this civilised meal had now turned into angry sailors stabbing at their chicken and eating it off the knife, or just scrapping the knife altogether and eating with their hands. Lovely. Or if you’re Jeremy or Kyle and therefore too gentlemanly to eat like that, you order an extra knife, and eat your dinner with two knifes.

After food and a lot of consumption of wine (and secret stashes of vodka strapped to ours legs or trips to the men’s bathroom for gentlemen chat and a drop of whisky) THE CEILIDH began. A lot of fun, a lot of sweat (Tweak) and a lot of throwing poor innocent girls on the floor. We even tried a new ceilidh move called the basket (or at least that’s the name we gave it) where the two boys would lift the two girls in a circle so their legs would swing out and knock out any poor victims that got in the way.

The most destructive dance was the finale, Strip the Willow. This dance left girls with bruises on their arms from being swung by scary, aggressive, and far too enthusiastic Scottish sailors; one in particular was a St Andrews helm. Keep away from this man in Ceilidhs! And a future note to girls out there… Do not partner up with Ben Gibson, he will swing you, then let go so that you wipe out on the floor and fly straight into the band.

More antics from that night, we all saw Grahame’s willy.  Unlucky Grahame. Also a Dundonian strapping a GoPro to his chest so that he could video close ups of girls boobs, (and the ceilidh obviously) To the girls at this event, if this guys was having a conversation with you that night, he was actually having a conversation with yours boobs.

After the ceilidh, it was time to bring SUSA to WhyNot and carry on the party to silly hours in the morning. Even if the sailing goes tits up tomorrow, at least we had an unforgettable ceilidh.

Next morning, we set off feeling horrendous, except no frozen lake, which meant no to pre sailing nap time. We finished off the round robin in the Gold and Silver fleets, and then came the quarterfinals, semi-finals and the final. C team had a tough battle against our Edinburgh A in the quarterfinals, however were unfortunately knocked out. They still had a well deserved and enjoyable trip to McDonalds, and a more important competition which involved slapping Laura Prentice in the face with a dead fish, and chucking a glass of water in Grahame’s face. Edinburgh A had a tough semi-final against Strath A, winning it in two races and proceeding to the final, to race against either Edinburgh B or St Andrews… who was going to win their semi final? After one all, it was all down to the last race. No pressure. However the thought of racing against our A team (and attempting to beat them) in the final drove us to sail better than St Andrews.

An all Edinburgh final. The A team VS the B team.  5 races if we need them. If the A team win, they’ve won the SUSA series, and the Champs, so they’ll have the whole package. But if the B team win, it’ll be the true underdog story. The A team have been training with us all year, and demolished at us at every event we’ve done together. Wouldn’t it be great if we beat them…?

Drum roll…………..

………

………

………. They beat us 3 races straight. Paaaaaahaaa. Oh well, there’s no harm in having high hopes

Well done Edinburgh A team. Winning the SUSA series, SUSA champs, and qualifying for BUSA.

Big up to my fellow B and C teams. We’ve all improved massively this year; lets carry this success on next year!

A HUGE thankyou to Ruth CDubbs, our amazing commodore for all the organising and stress for this event, all of the helpers and umpires over the weekend, we couldn’t have done it without you! We all massively enjoyed ourselves this weekend, and a lot of this is down to our wonderful social sec Laura Hutton. We will all miss you next year!

This event was a huge success, and a lot of fun, and if you’ve read this and thought, wow, that sounds like a lot of fun, then I encourage you to join in with EUSC next year. You will not regret it!

The Icy winds and horizontal sleet were as hostile as the racing was tense between the 20 teams at the Team Racing Regatta in West Kirby last weekend.
Day 1 and both the Edinburgh teams were a formidable force. Despite some good challengers, and some very close calls, the Blue team won every race in their pool, and the Green’s hardly put a foot wrong, both resoundingly secured a place in the gold fleet.
With such initial success, the pressure was on, and the racing tougher in the Gold Fleet. However, both Teams were on top form and sailed well, winning some races and providing good competition in the others.

Saturday night –theme tight and bright! A good amount was spent running in circles round Liverpool in leopard print pants trying to find some damn tequila bar, then some damn club. The rest of it was spend busting some crazy moves, or watching Ben bust some crazier moves, or watching English teams watching Ben busting dem moves. Stuff got lost which pretty much confirms it was a top night.

Sunday morning, went off to a disappointing start when the Edinburgh Nottingham race was called to be re-sailed. From having beaten them twice day before, the Edinburgh team was spectacularly defeated, Nottingham 1,2,3 Edinburgh 4,5,6. However, recompense came for Edinburgh in the form of the Green Team, who decisively defeated Nottingham.

As the day continued the steady breeze turned in a screaming gusting gale, requiring bullet fast reactions, and with merciless consequences for mistakes. Capsizing kept the safety boats busy, but luckily for the Edinburgh teams, these only happened in between races. The lighter teams found the strong winds more of hindrance, but put up a good fight, while the Old Boy teams were in their element. The final was a Manchester OB v Sheffield OB, Manchester taking the title. Edinburgh Blue finished in fourth, second university team while Edinburgh Green took 6th.

Final Result
1st Manchester OB
2nd Shallumni
3rd Liverpool
4th Edinburgh Blue
5th Cardiff
6th Edinburgh Green
7th Nottingham

1) Scottish Student Sailing Presents SSSailing Yachting Championships on the 9th 10th March 2013

A weekend of keelboat fleet racing for teams of 4 or 5 in Hunter 707s from Port Edgar.
Regatta details, entry details and prices per boat can be found in the Entry Form and Notice of Race.  Sailing Instructions with details of the racing format to follow.  If you are struggling to find crew members, please contact SSSailing, who will be happy to locate you team mates.

Please note deadline for entry is the 28th February 2013

If you have any queries please contact the SSS at: sss@ryascotland.org.uk

2) Scottish Student Sailing presents Dinghy Weekend on the 16th 17th March 2013

This weekend event consists of two parts:
A competitive Fleet Racing Event and a Beginners’ Assessment Course.

Beginners’ Event
This is a great chance for beginners to get their RYA levels and certificates, allowing them the confidence and ability to handle a boat themselves.
Boats and coaches are being provided, and for £15 per head, is one of the cheapest ways to get your RYA levels around!

Programme for SSS Dinghy Weekend- beginners

Entry Form – SSS Dinghy Weekend – Beginners Course

Fleet Racing
This will be competitive One Design Fleet Racing in Firefly class boats.
Fireflys are manoeuvrable double-handers, so you will need both a helm and a crew to race.
Competitors are to provide their own boats, but if you don’t have one, please liaise with SSSailing or one of the major sailing universities about hiring a boat for a small charge.
Entry will be £10 per person, and if you struggle to find a helm, or a crew, again SSSailing will be happy to help you locate a crewmate.

Entry Form – SSS Dinghy Weekend – Fleet Racing

Please note deadline for entry is the 28th February 2013

If you have any queries please contact the SSS at: sss@ryascotland.org.uk