2009 Season

Post date: Jan 8, 2010 7:02:12 PM

Saturday April 25th

BSDRA East Kent Region Team Racing Championships - at Westbere SC, Canterbury

Richard Maltby writes:

The first team racing fixture of Summer term 2009 was sailed on Saturday April 25 at Westbere lakes SC, near Canterbury. Enjoying bright sunshine and a good SSW F3/4 breeze eleven teams raced very well in lively conditions throughout the afternoon. We were delighted to welcome two teams entered by Kent Schools Sailing Association (KSSA) as links between BSDRA and NSSA at local and national level develop. Close results in many races reflected a good standard of sailing with Sevenoaks, in particular, showing impressive team-racing skills as the afternoon progressed. After three hours of “round robin” races four teams were adjudged to be finalists:- KSSA 1, King’s, Magdalen College School Oxford and Wellington. For the third successive year MCS Oxford were worthy winners of the East Kent trophy.

Results:

Gold League: 1st MCS Oxford, 2 Wellington, 3 King’s, 4 KSSA 1.

Silver league: 1st Sevenoaks

also sailed: RGS Guildford, Aldenham, KSSA 2, Tonbridge, King’s 2, King’s 3.

I wish to thank Martin Pascoe (Ardingly) and Richard Crook (Sevenoaks) for umpiring, the team managers for their help, the Commodore and members of Westbere SC for their generous support, and, above all, all 66 sailors for their enthusiasm, co-operation and great sense of fun.

Saturday May 9th

BSDRA Eastern Region Team Racing Championships - at Middle Nene SC, Thrapston

SW Force 2/3 Sunny intervals - perfect!

Richard Atkins (Race Officer) writes:

The 2009 Eastern Championships were held in lively conditions at Middle Nene SC on May 9th. Please download the results spreadsheet. 14 teams participated and had exciting sailing with several capsizes during the day. A total of 51 races were sailed and it is a great credit to all the competitors that they coped well with the conditions and we finished the programme. Ipswich, Uppingham and Sevenoaks won their groups in the round-robin phase, winning all their races; whilst second places were held by Oundle, Norwich and Rugby. It was very clear that Norwich had a very good team as they had won all but one match convincingly, so it was no surprise that they dominated the repechage stage for the last semi-final place. They defeated Ipswich in the semis, and Sevenoaks defeated Uppingham in a close contest being decided eventually on points. Meanwhile in the Silver Fleet semifinals, Kings Canterbury beat Oakham and Haileybury beat MCS, Haileybury eventually going on to beat King's 2-1 in a well-contested and exciting final.

In the Gold Fleet, the four outstanding teams on the day were Norwich, Ipswich, Uppingham and Sevenaoaks, any two of whom could have reached the finals. In the end Sevenoaks and Norwich battled it out. Norwich won the first race but this had to be resailed because of a procedural error, and Sevenoaks then won it 10-11. Norwich then dominated the second race, winning 1,2,3, so it was down to the final race. This was a frenetic affair which Sevenoaks won on the line 10-11. So Sevenoaks were the eventual winners, possibly against the run of play, against an outstanding Norwich team, who in their turn had been defeated by Uppingham in the round-robin stage.

Overall I think the standard of sailing from all the competitors was the highest we have seen since we started the event in 2002. I would like to thank our excellent team of umpires, Bruce Hebbert, Jack Edwards and Andy Cornah for their clear and decisive arbitration throughout over five hours of continuous racing.

Schools participating: Haileybury, Oundle School, Norwich School, Ipswich School, Rugby School,

Stamford Schools, Kings Canterbury, Stowe School, Sevenoaks School, Uppingham,

Oakham School, Kimbolton School, Magdalen College School Oxford, Aldenham School

Saturday May 9th

BSDRA Southern Region Team Racing Championships - Spinnaker SC

Stephen Wilkinson has posted Entries (.xls) and Results (.doc) and writes:

Sunny conditions and a gentle breeze made for a great competition on Spinnaker Club lake near Ringwood, where ten schools gathered for the Southern Region championships. The first round established Wellington, Sherborne and MCS as the teams to beat and the close final was between Wellington’s A team and MCS. The latter, having lost to Wellington in the second round and, narrowly, in the first race of the final, managed to win eventually with a 126 on the last beat. The event was also Graham Nurser’s final event in charge of Wellington: he will be much missed, and we hope that the terrific performances from both Wellington teams in this event will continue despite his absence in the future.

Sunday 7th June

BSDRA Northern Region Team Racing Championship - Killington SC

Miles Ripley writes:

Seniors, Match Racing - Omegas and Bosuns:

1st Merchant Taylors’ Crosby; 2nd = Sedbergh, Rydal Penrhos, Windermere St Annes;

Juniors, Team sailing in toppers:

1st – Sedbergh; 2nd Rydal Penrhos 1; 3rd Merchants; 4th Rydal Penrhos 2

A dire forecast suggesting single figure temperatures accompanied by rain didn’t bode well but in reality the rain held off , even if the temperature was pretty cold. Merchant Taylors’ Crosby, Rydal Penrhos, Windermere St Annes and Sedbergh duly arrived to take part in match racing for the seniors and Topper team racing for the Year 10’s and below.

The match racing was held in pairs of Omegas and Bosuns and saw some very tight sailing especially in the pre start manoeuvres by Merchants, Rydal and Sedbergh. The outcome of this component almost always determined the outcome of the race apart from one capsize situation at the leeward mark! Merchants had to work hard but then won all three of their races and so retained the Killington Salver. A three way tie of one win each for the other three places could have been resolved but underlined the competitive nature of the racing.

Meanwhile Sedbergh were out on the team sailing course showing the other schools how it should be done with a series of victories in each of their races. All of them at one time or another individually won races, but in the end it is the team’s combined places that count and they were emphatic winners which bodes well for the future. Rydal put in two teams who held 2nd and 4th places while Merchants took 3rd place.