Fortrose Academy student Oliver Bull goes from Chanonry Sailing Club to 29er World Championships as one half of top ranked Scottish pair
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Fortrose Academy student Oliver Bull has his sights set on the 29er sailing World Championships in Barcelona in August.
The 16-year-old started sailing in 2014 at Chanonry Sailing Club, and those local beginnings have led to great success in the youth sailing world.
He was selected in 2021 to join the Royal Yachting Association Scotland (RYAS) 29er Performance Team and more recently, the UK 29er Class Association National Squad.
The ‘29er’ class is a high performance two-person youth racing dinghy category.
Last weekend saw the RYAS’s 29er performance coaching team arrive on the Black Isle for a weekend of high-performance coaching and development.
Bull, a SportsAid Scotland award recipient, said ‘I’m delighted that the coaches are here to deliver a development weekend at my home club on the Black Isle.
“It’s a great opportunity for younger sailors to see what we do and hopefully get inspired to take up the sport.
“I got into 29ers almost by accident.
“I saw a 29er in action at one of the National sailing regattas where I was racing in Toppers (a small single-handed dinghy suited to juniors), and then had a go at a ‘transition event’, where junior sailors can try various youth class boats to see where they want to go next in their sailing progression.
“I was hooked on the 29er straight away. They are fast, double-handed boats with some high-quality racing on the UK circuit.”
Oliver and his sailing partner, Morven Wood from Helensburgh Sailing Club, are currently ranked as the top Scottish pair in the 29er class and 15th in the UK overall rankings – an outstanding achievement in their first year of sailing together.
Following a winter of training with the UK 29er National squad, the performance coaching weekend at Chanonry Sailing Club was a key step for Oliver and Morven in their preparation for the big upcoming sailing events in 2022.
The pair now have their sights firmly fixed on the RYA Youth Championships in Pwllheli this Easter, and the European Championships in Copenhagen, the World Championships in Barcelona and the UK National Championships in Torquay over the summer.
