Inaugural UYC Club Championships

Published 12:52 on 6 Oct 2026

It was a weekend of two halves for Ullswater Yacht Club's inaugural Club Championships, with 18 boats taking part across two days of racing.

The format saw three races back-to-back on Saturday afternoon, followed by three races on Sunday. With two discards across the six-race series, competitors needed to take part on both days to be in with a chance of overall glory.

Saturday's racing started in sunshine and a sub-10 knot breeze coming in from the NNW. After some juggling of the start line and spacer marks, racing got underway with three races completed back-to-back.

At the end of the first day, Tempest 1114, sailed by Ian Modral and Robin Higgins, led the standings, closely followed by Sue and David Giles in their Flying Fifteen, with Anne Noble and Tim Whitehead third in the VX One.

Sunday presented competitors with a very different day. The lake started with white horses and winds of around 20 knots. Predictably, the wind dropped for the start of the first race before picking up again later, keeping sailors on their toes and putting a few in the water.

With Saturday's leaders and the third-placed team not sailing on Sunday, Sue and David Giles had everything to play for. Unfortunately, they were forced to retire from the first race with an unfixable technical problem.

John Lyons in the ILCA Radial and Jonno Shelley and Graham Priestley, sailing the International 14, were among the individual race winners as the challenging conditions mixed up the results.

However, with a strong and consistent set of results across both days, John Robson and Jason Bridgman, sailing VX One 300, were crowned UYC's first Club Champions.

It was incredibly close behind them, with Keith Lockey and Paul Adams in their VX One and Andrew Cutting in the RS Vareo both finishing on 15 points. Keith and Paul took second place on the tie-break, with Andrew completing the podium in third.

Following a successful first running of the event, the Club intends to repeat the two-day Club Championships next year, when we hope to see an even bigger fleet and the introduction of a separate junior competition.

Last updated 12:52 on 6 October 2026