31st July – 5th August Hosted by Largs Sailing Club
220 International Optimist Class Sailors came to Scotland for the 2022 British Open National Championships at the start of August, making it one of Scotland’s largest sailing events this year.
The competitive junior fleet has sailors from age 8-14 years old and is split across 4 racing categories, Senior, Junior, Regatta and Regatta Coached. The unique design has enabled young people to safely engage in sailing from a young age, while the technical and competitive fleet racing has inspired a generation of future Olympic aspirants.
On the racing front, it was a clean sweep for the Edwards girls at the end of the week with Lila Edwards winning the Senior Main Fleet and her younger sister Eliana winning the Junior Main Fleet. A truly remarkable double. The fleet enjoyed 15 races in some tricky conditions and overall, the week was a success. The full race report can be found here.
Families from across the UK travelled to Largs for the rearranged 2020 event, as this was one of several major events affected by the pandemic this was a welcome return to racing for many. Volunteers run the event with a core pool of supporters drawn from parents, often new to the sport, with the two-year gap therefore providing some unique challenges and opportunities for the event.
The International Optimist Class Association of the UK (IOCA UK) runs this annual event at venues around the UK. 23 Scottish Sailors took part with their parents assisting in this year’s Scottish event in conjunction with Largs Sailing Club. The event was managed entirely by volunteers from across both the club and class association.
Largs is the recognised national sailing venue in Scotland and Largs Sailing Club receives support from members to volunteer with a broad range of expertise across event management and race officiating to host such events and was the largest since the pandemic.
The format of the two volunteer organisations contrasted and complimented each other with over 90 people assisting in the delivery of the 2022 event, enabling a safe, successful and rewarding week for all involved.
Diana Davidson, Event Coordinator said. “I’m a parent of an optimist sailor. Our home club is Dalgety Bay and I’m not really a sailor myself. It’s not really my field of operations. It’s the first time I have run any type of sailing event!”
“The weeks been great. It’s been really brilliant to see it all come together. Whilst I have been working quite hard in the preceding weeks, because everybody arrives and gets on with the jobs that they know how to do best and my week has actually been much easier than I was expecting, so I have enjoyed that.”
Mark Edwards of Largs Sailing Club said. “ It’s been a really good sort of integration of club facilities and the Optimist Class Association to put together a really nice event for 220 entries and it’s just been a good example of how class associations and clubs can work well together to put on great events. It really comes down to this, as a sailing club. We pride ourselves on the location being suitable for all sorts of major events. And as a member of the club, I want the club to be successful.”
Ann Roy, Club Member and Deputy Race Officer said. “I enjoy being a race officer and doing that role also get a lot of satisfaction out of watching all the young sailors progress. I recognise ones from a few years ago who could even come out and high five you in big winds, or even moderate winds, who are now very happy going out in 420’s in twenty plus knots and do very well when they go to championships all over the UK. So just to see the growth and development of the sailors is just amazing.”
Another Scottish volunteer, Rachel Jackson, from St Mary’s Loch Sailing Club in the borders, commented. “I help with the Scottish coordinators of the event, but I’m also an Oppie mum to three sailors at the event. There is a lot of camaraderie on the beach and all working together with the coaches to get those young sailors out there. So that’s a real win for the event I think.”
“There have to be a lot of parents who volunteer to make this event happen and there’s so many roles. We need so many people to help and I’m gaining so much from my kids being here, my kids are gaining so much from being here that. I really have to get out there and help. I don’t want to be a parent who’s standing back and not getting stuck in there.”
IOCA has a strong base of parents who support the class throughout the year, with a clear motivation to volunteer. As these volunteers move on to other classes as their children continue to develop there is a strong incentive to recruit and develop new volunteers within the Class Association, like the team running the 2022 Optimist Nationals.
Jennifer Wesley is one of the Regatta coaches and is also volunteering in University Sailing where there is a similar volunteer cycle, with opportunities to develop their sailing club and encourage new members in, as well as compete. Coaching is a great opportunity to reconnect through class events and continue to learn through sailing and volunteering.
“Well, I started off a couple of years ago and I did some travellers around Scotland and I was the Regatta Fleet coach then and I just built up a lot of experience and then I decided to do the Nationals. I’m at university. So I sail fireflies and go team racing. Very different to the usual fleet racing, but really enjoying it so far.”
What reward do volunteers get for their efforts? Between club and class association there are different motivations, but both are equally rewarding for those involved.
“The reward really is the satisfaction of an event running well, where we put on all the support that we’re asked to and we’ve delivered in spades.” Said Mark Edwards of LSC. “In terms of individuals, they have the satisfaction of knowing that they’ve contributed to a really good club event. It’s very satisfying in the end as you actually see some product from all your efforts.”
In speaking about the reward the IOCA Event Coordinator Diana noted. “The sun was shining, the wind was blowing and all you could see was these optimists just kind of tacking towards the start line, it was just amazing and that just made the week. Everyone there with smiles and what more would you want to see your child’s out there enjoying that and all those other children are enjoying it as well.”
RYA Scotland has launched a Volunteer Development Framework with an aim of helping your club or organisation review and strengthen its practices with regards to volunteering and in doing so create a sustainable volunteer culture for the future. Examples like national events demonstrate a number of motivations and roles involved to succeed.
All volunteer led organisations have an ethos or set of principles which outline how the organisation values and recognises volunteers. Any ethos should live at the heart of your culture, in how you advertise yourself and how you live and breathe as an organisation.
Please visit to find out more and find out how you can develop a volunteer ethos to help grow sailing and boating in your class, club or organisation.
https://www.rya.org.uk/gbni/scotland/initiatives/volunteer-development-framework
