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RYA Dinghy Sailing Courses
Applications for LESC’s popular Training Week Dinghy Sailing Courses open tomorrow, 1 May, for members and then 15 May for non-members. The programme is always extremely popular with limited capacity, so get your students signed up asap. When you sign up, we ask for a 50 deposit that is deducted from the total when we confirm your student’s placement. LESC builds classes as applications ar received for RYA Dinghy Sailing Youth Stages 1-4, Adult Levels 1-3, and Advanced Courses as needed. Once a minimum number of applicants for a particular class have been received, applicants will be notified and payment requested.
- Minimum Age: 8 years
- No experience necessary
- Mon – Fri 0930 – 1630


RYA Level 2 Powerboat Handling Course
Loch Earn SC will also be hosting an RYA Level 2 Powerboat Handling Course on the weekend of 15 – 17 May
Launching and recovery, boat handling, securing to a buoy, anchoring, leaving and coming alongside, and man overboard. See RYA course info page for details including the course brochure.
Book required for the course will be provided.
- Minimum Age: 16 years
- No experience necessary
- Friday Evening – Sunday Evening
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2026 Spring Racing Rules Clinic Recap
On Satuday, 25 April, LESC welcomed RYA Rules Advisor Craig Evans to the club to talk about the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS). It was well attended by just over a dozen members and a few visitors from Newburgh SC and Perth SC who were attending an RYA Dinghy Instructor Course at LESC. Craig presented an overview of resources such as the World Sailing Racing Rules of Sailing information including the World Sailing RRS Case Book.


Craig also shared his brilliant 3D printed boats which are available from a sailor named Robin Gray who shares the 3D printer files for you to print yourself.
The 3D printer files for these items are all available, at no cost, on my profile on Thingiverse and MakerWorld.
https://www.thingiverse.com/Yotter/designs
https://makerworld.com/en/@user_1190536036/uploadNo 3D printer – no problem, I can print any of these items at nearly cost plus postage.
Big thank you for Craig for travelling to deliver his clinic to us at LESC and I hope everyone enjoyed it.

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2026 LESC Racing Rules Clinic
with Craig Evans, RYA Regional Rules advisor for Scotland
Craig Evans, the RYA Regional Rules Advisor (RRA) for Scotland, will once again be at LESC to give a racing rules clinic (aimed at adults but juniors are welcome) on Saturday, 25 April, 2026 from 1030 – 1200. Suggested donation of £5.
Evans was appointed as a national judge in November 2020, in addition to serving on the jury for several national-level events including the Irish Youth Nationals. He has also served on several international juries at events abroad, including three class world championships, alongside team-racing and match-racing umpiring around the UK and Ireland.
Evans’ role is to improve rules knowledge in clubs and classes throughout Scotland and to assist with rules advice and training with the RYA Scotland performance teams. Last year we spent time with Rule 42 and with the recent updated to the RRS, we should have loads to cover.
LESC Racing Rules Clinic will be aimed at adult dinghy and keelboat sailors racing competitively or interested in racing competitively.
Please RSVP via the form below and let Craig know if there’s anything in particular you’d like him to cover.
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2026 Brown Cup Scottish School Sailing Championship
ENTRIES NOW OPEN!
LESC is pleased to announce that entries for the 2026 Brown Cup Scottish School Sailing Championship are officially open!
NOR and SIs: https://scottishschoolsailing.org/noticeboard
Entry Form: https://lochearnsc.com/calendar/brown-cup-scottish-schools-championship/entry-form/
Official Merch: https://wrightsport.co.uk/collections/2026-scottish-schools-brown-cup-sailing-championships

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2026 LESC First Fling
Entry to the LESC First Fling on 2-3 May has opened for all fleets.
Excitingly, the The Clachan Hotel, Lochearnhead are offering a two-course competitor meal for £20pp payable via the entry form, however, there are only 40 places so book asap.
Meals in addition to competitor meals are available to purchase via the form as needed. Allergies and dietary needs will be accommodated as needed.
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The 2026 Season is Getting Underway
The 2026 LESC Season is officially underway with the publication of this year’s fixture list and invitation via DutyMan to choose duty sign ups.
As many of you will be aware,
The continuing good health of a small club such as ours is dependent upon the contributions of its membership whether through serving on the club committee, making skills or resources available, taking part in the work parties, and taking turns on the OOD/safety boat driving roster. Relevant training is available: just ask a committee member.
Please ensure that you participate, rather than leaving everything to “someone else”.
Race Duties
As a club, the membership comes together to run various racing and cruising events that require a few members to ‘run.’ Mostly these duties centre around safety and support in the event that there is an accident. Sailing is not without risk. The health and safety of club members is the primary concern of the committee. Incidents in the past have underlined for us all that even the most experienced sailor can suffer a mishap on this loch.
To this end, we request all members to join in by volunteering for at least two positions per year. Almost every event on the fixture list requires roles including:
Race Officer – This person sets the courses for all fleets racing, operates the light and sound system to signal starts, records finish places and times, then ensures the results are sent to the sailing secretary.
Safety Boat/RIB Driver – This person will ideally have an RYA Safety Boat certification or at least an RYA Power Boating Lvl II certification, and will be responsible for driving the RIB.
Safety Boat/RIB Crew – This person does not need any certification but will assist the Safety Boat Driver as needed.
At LESC, we use an system called DutyMan to manage who is on duty when. If you weren’t invited to choose which of this year’s duties you would like to volunteer for and when, please contact the Sailing Secretary via sailing@lochearnsc.com ASAP.
Swap Duties
Once the DutyMan roster has been finalised around about 1 April 2026, the DutyMan interface accessed via the link in the Member’s Area (https://lochearnsc.com/members-area/sailing/race-duty-info/#dutyman) will allow you to manage and swap duties with others.
New Members
To request a DutyMan user for the first time, visit https://lochearnsc.com/members-area/sailing/race-duty-info/#dutyman. You will need access to the member’s area of lochearnsc.com. To register for the member’s area, see your welcome email from the Secretary (secretary@lochearnsc.com).

Spring Work Party
28 March 2026 | 0930
Mark your calendars now for the annual day of unpacking and cobweb dusting that will officially kick off the 2026 sailing season: THE SPRING WORK PARTY! This year’s work party day falls on Saturday, 28 March, and the most intrepid members will start as early as 9:30 AM. A jobs list will be circulated and posted closer to the date.

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2025 Final Fling Wrap Up
It was a great turnout for the Final Fling despite the poor weather forecast.
Huge thanks to the kitchen team, rescue team and race team, as always, it is really appreciated.
Colin – Congratulations to Aaron and Tanya, Tasar Scottish and UK Inland Champions. A nail biting last two races saw them draw level with Tom and Ben finishing level on points and countback. The result was decided on the last race — doesn’t get closer than that. Next up was young Lawrence who sailed a blinder in extremely tricky conditions to take the RNLI Dinghy Trophy.
The roar from the club nearly blew the roof off the club house. I believe we have just seen the youngest ever winner of the Final Fling in the history of the club. “Peerie” Lawrence will be one to watch in the future. Finally congratulations to Graham and Cameron Sharp who won the RNLI Keelboat Fleet in their Flying Fifteen.
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Hello everyone!
The Final Fling – 27th & 28th September 2025
The Final Fling, the clubs last big event in 2025, is now just over a month away. Nicol, our Sailing Secretary, has already posted a copy of the Notice of Race (which has a link to the Entry Form) on Whats App but in case you missed this, its attached to this email. Check out the details and get involved – it would be great to see as many members on the water as possible for our Final Fling!
Our bigger events rely on the support of volunteers, and we are still looking for people to fill the following roles:-
- Assistant Race Officer
- Rib Driver
- Rib Assistant
- Kitchen helpers – no skills or previous experience needed, its all very casual, just bring some enthusiasm and muddle in.
If you are able to help please contact Nicol at sailing@lochearnsc.com
If you’re not able to help on the day, perhaps you could bring some home baking? Home baking is always popular so if you are able to bring something along to add to the menu this would be really appreciated. Just hand it into the kitchen in the morning.
Thank you to everyone who dedicates their time and energy to supporting our club events. Your efforts make these events possible and ensure they run smoothly, and the Committee, and I’m sure our members, very much appreciate everything you do.
Kind regards.
Catriona Murray
Honorary Secretary
Loch Earn Sailing Club
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LESC’s 2025 Training Week Courses are nearly full and any members interested in booking a place must do so asap!
Adult and Junior Dinghy Sailing Courses cover RYA Dinghy Sailing Youth Stages 1-4, Adult Levels 1-3, and Advanced Courses as needed in small classes. Once a minimum number of applicants for a particular class have been received, applicants will be notified and payment requested. Experience is not required and the minimum age is 8 years old. This year’s Training Week will run from 7 – 11 July from 0930-1630 with registration opening from 0830 on the first day.
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Well done and thanks to all those involved in running the 2025 First Fling.
Race and rescue teams did a great job in trying conditions — not easy to run races in almost no wind as we had on Saturday to the full on breeze we got on Sunday afternoon.
Last but by no means least, well done to the kitchen team. A tremendous spread set out for visitors and club members alike. Several of the visiting competitors commented on how well they were looked after and appreciated the welcome they received. What a great start to the season!



