Post date: Mar 9, 2010 5:32:42 PM
West Kirby Hawks will defend their RYA National Team Racing Championship title at West Kirby on 20 and 21 March.
They will face some strong opposition from Royal Thames and leading university teams.
The following18 teams are entered. Entry is now closed.
NSSA Double handed team Race Championships 2010
The second running of the NSSA team racing championships sailed in Firefly dinghies was held at Oxford on the 6th March. Eight teams took part with entries from as far a field as Northampton, Worcestershire, Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire.
All of the teams raced against each other in a single round robin which took 28 races. The only team to remain undefeated was Magdalen College school A (MCS A) with Abingdon School second and Northampton third. The second stage of the competition was a knock out with the first ranked team sailing against the eight and the second sailing against the seventh. The knock out produce an upset with Northampton losing to Worcestershire 10 point to 11 points. This gave a semi final of MCS A against Cambridge B and Abingdon against Worcestershire.
MCS A and Abingdon won through to the final. Worcestershire and Cambridge’s B sailed of for the third place and also the price for the first non BSDRA team. The third fourth play of was very close with both teams managing to snatch defeat from the jaw of victory on the last beat but eventually Worcestershire won the match 8 points to 13. So the team of Jo Lucas, James Phillips, Rosie Smith, Jon Bell, Tony Sammons and Pippa Cusack will be of to the BSDRA finals at the end of June with their entry fee paid b the NSSA.
The final was sailed with the first team to win two races. It was a local derby between two of the schools that own the fleet of firefly dinghies. The first race was won easily by MCS 7 points to 14. However in the second race the captain of Abingdon Guy Stephens lead from the start and did a great job of holding the MCS team at bay, unfortunately his team mates were unable to sail around the boys from MCS and so MCS finished 2, 3, and 4th to give them victory 9 points to 12. William Lou the MCS team captain thanked ODSSA the organisers for a great day of team racing and all of the teams enjoyed the tea after the prize giving.
The Chief Umpire Bill Brockbank who had driven over 90 miles to umpire the event noted that the sportsman ship and rule observance was the best that he had seen at a youth team racing event for many years. The Cambridgeshire team not only brought two teams but also helped to man the committee boat all day which was very busy with 36 races being started and finished at the committee boat. It is hoped that this event will run again next year at Oxford and it will continue to grow. It enables young sailors from both the state and independent sector of education to race with and against each other and prepares them for the type of sailing that they will enjoy when they go to University together.
Report by George Barker - The Sailing Coach