We asked the new hosts to give us all a run down on the weekends events, its fair to say that Peterhead delivered - What a weekend Over To Danny Hawthorn for his take on the last T15 event of 2017.

Teams of budding windsurfers from Newburgh Sea Gorillaz, Monikie Maniacs, Clyde Barracudas and the Loch Insh Monsters were expected, and wind forecasts for the Saturday were looking quite breezy at 18-20mph gusting 25-30mph with heavy showers throughout, so quite challenging conditions were anticipated.

T15 coordinator Sami Poole wasn’t available for coaching this weekend so former Scottish Windsurfing Champion Natalie McWilliams was drafted in as head coach for the Saturday session.  Fantastic for the kids to have access to her knowledge and experience! 

Natalie laid out the aims for the Saturday sessions, stronger winds so gust control and upwind sailing the focus of the day.  Everyone got on the water and got warmed up with a follow my leader around a 2 buoy course sailing across the wind, trying to hold their position.

There was a natural split in the group with some of the younger windsurfers staying closer to the shore in the windy conditions. They managed to sail across the wind in both directions then drag their boards back up the beach if they slipped down wind.

The heavy showers never materialised, so ‘Bear’ from Monikie got the BBQ going over at the clubhouse and all enjoyed a great lunch basking in the sunshine.  With more windsurfers arriving from Clyde and Newburgh through the day, we now had a packed event.

Back on the water for the afternoon session, we saw the windsurfers start to try out their race skills on a triangular course.  The wind had dropped slightly, making conditions perfect and all were making great progress in gust control, improved upwind sailing and blasting downwind around the course. They finished off their session attempting loads of freestyle moves, foot drags, kneeling down, heli-tacks and duck gybes to name a few. Meanwhile, the younger windsurfers were having a blast inshore and finished off their session with some mini-races and board balance games.

A great first day, big thanks to Natalie McWilliams, with everyone primed and ready for the Sunday session where we expected even more windsurfers to be joining from Loch Insh.

Sunday morning, after bacon rolls were kindly brought over from the campsite by some of the Monikie crew, we were set for day 2. As promised, another 6 windsurfers from the Loch Insh Monsters rolled up with Jonny Freshwater, and our head coach for the day was Robin Nicol of RYA Scotland.

Conditions were great again, consistent wind with the sun appearing here and there. Aims for the day were to get ready for races and a freestyle competition in the afternoon, and most importantly have great fun on the water!   Robin set the windsurfers off in one big group this time on a triangular course, and had them practicing freestyle moves on each leg of the course.

The younger sailors split away again and made great progress inshore. They did a few practice races around a single buoy course, setting off from the beach, around the buoy and back to an upwind flag on the beach.

When the younger sailors broke for lunch, Robin decided on a change of tack (pun intended!) and set up a down wind slalom race course for the others.  They got a few runs of this before lunch to test out their gybes and downwind sailing.

BBQ in the sunshine again for lunch, whilst Robin got the younger windsurfers back on the water and got them racing around their single buoy course. They finished off their day with freestyle moves, hand claps, foot drags and ‘the commit!’.

After lunch, the other windsurfers split into their various fleets for the Slalom race, we had 5.5, 4.5 and 3.5 fleets. A hotly contested competition and some excellent sailing all round made for a brilliant afternoon. The windsurfers really enjoyed the slalom course and had great fun on the water. The afternoon was finished off with a freestyle competition with kneeling down, lying down, heli-tacks, duck gybes, sail & body 360’s, crazy dismounts and all sorts going on.

Gear was stripped down, packed away, showers and changed, ready for the prize giving over in the clubhouse. Results as follows:

5.5 Fleet

1^st – Stewart Hawthorn – Newburgh Sea Gorillaz

2^nd – Finlay Raynor – Loch Insh Monsters

4.5 Fleet

1^st – Suzie Sturrock – Monikie Maniacs

2^nd – Dylan Sangster – Loch Insh Monsters

3^rd – Kyle Clark – Loch Insh Monsters

3.5 Fleet

1^st – Kai Beattie – Loch Insh Monsters

2^nd – Finlay McNeish – Loch Insh Monsters

3^rd – Sam Hawthorn – Newburgh Sea Gorillaz

Freestyle1^st – Logan Cosgrove – Monikie Maniacs

2^nd – Donald Robertson – Monikie Maniacs

3^rd – Zak Nicol – Clyde Barracudas

Gold medals for effort, attitude and on-water skills were also awarded to our younger Sea Gorillaz, Amy, Ellen, Becka and Joseph. Well done to everyone!

A great weekend, brilliant finish to the T15 Scotland season and looking forward to the Tiree Wave Camp 14^th-18^th October 2017, and next years T15 events.

On behalf of the Newburgh Sea Gorillaz, thanks go to Peterhead Sailing Club for use of facilities, Aberdeenshire Sailing Trust for use of boats and general assistance, the event couldn’t have happened without their help. Thanks also to Natalie McWilliams & Robin Nicol for coaching, all the parents, coaches and helpers for driving, camping, bbq, bacon rolls, hot chocolate, safety boat, welfare, rigging, photos, chatting, enthusiasm etc etc, and most importantly thanks to all the T15 windsurfers for being awesome!