As many of us hang up our sailing boots for the winter it is a good opportunity to reflect back on what has been a great season. The MUSTO Skiff fleet in the UK has been enjoying growing numbers year on year for the last 8 seasons. The 2018 season saw 93 individual competitors over the 10 event series and also saw the largest attended open meeting at Stokes Bay in April with 48 boats. Within the 93 there are no less than 19 new competitors, 10 of which competed at the Nationals showing that the MUSTO Skiff continues to attract new talent into the class. On the Yachts & Yachting Nationals attendance ranking the MUSTO Skiff was 2nd of all trapeze dinghy classes beaten only by the 29er.
The UK membership base represents 32 different clubs from Chanonry in the north to Stokes Bay in the south – the Gosport based club also has the largest fleet in the UK (and World!?) at 20 boats.
Looking ahead to the 2019 season there is a great series of events to look forward to. Jono Shelley our Northern rep has put an excellent circuit together for the Scotland / Northern England region as follows:
6/7th April: Yorkshire Dales SC
20/21st April: Ullswater Yacht Club
- 18/19th May: Largs Sailing Club
- 1/2nd June: East Lothian Yacht Club
- 22/23rd June: Largo Bay Sailing Club
- 3/4th Aug Chanonry Sailing Club
- 24-26th Aug – Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club
- 5-8th Sept: UK National Championships Largs Sailing Club
- October tbc – Dalgety Bay Sailing Club
Our long suffering events co-ordinator Dave Poston hasn’t let the side down either and the Southern circuit is looking equally as packed with a mixture of familiar locations and some new ones:
- 23/24th March – Rutland Sailing Club
- 13/14th April – Stokes Bay Sailing Club
- 18/19th May – Wilsonian Sailing Club
- 15/16th June – Datchet Water Sailing Club
- 8-13th July – World Championships Medemblik
- 12/13th October – Brightlingsea Sailing Club
- 26/27th October – UK Inlands Grafham Water SC
There will also be some training events early season and before the Worlds / Nationals co-ordinated by Russ Clark – dates to follow.
A huge thanks to the guys for arranging, co-ordinating and liaising with the clubs to plan these 15 events. The UK series will be based on 10 of these with 4 events including the Nationals in Largs to count using the tried and testing weighted scoring systems. Here’s hoping we can reach triple figures on the UK circuit in 2019!
I wish you all the best in the run up to Christmas and look forward to seeing you all next season!
Ben Schooling, UK Chairman
