The 30th British Schools Sailing Association Finals took place at Oxford Sailing Club over the weekend of June 22/23. With 38 entries in the Firefly three boat event and the Feva Under 16 two boat event this was one of the biggest events of the year.

Stage 1 saw 147 races sailed for the 21 Firefly teams and 136 races for the 17 Feva teams in shifty and variable conditions. Stage 2 saw the Fireflies broken into four leagues and the Fevas - three leagues before going to the knock out semis and finals.

In the Fireflies, despite a three way tie at the end of Stage 1 between Rutland, RGS Green and Sevenoaks Red, at the end of Stage 2 it was Sevenoaks, RGS and MCS going through to the Semis, with winner of the Gold B League Norwich making up numbers. MCS took out RGS 2:1 but Sevenoaks needed a deciding race to take out Norwich (2:1). On the Silver Knock out it was Oakham Red taking out Claires Court and RGS Red defeating CVLSC. The Silver Final went to three races with RGS Red beating Oakham Red 2:1. In the Gold Final the Sevenoaks Red Team of Annabel, Cassie, Nick, Charlie, Anne-Marie and Alice beat MCS 2:1 to take the Whitstable Shield. 

Click Here for the full Firefly results courtesy of KSail

In the Fevas Norwich dominated with a 100% record in Stage 1 & 2 and through the Knock Outs which saw them beat Sevenoaks Black in the Semi final and then RHS Yellow in the final, RHS Yellow having beaten RHS Orange 2:1 in their Semi. In the Silver Fleet there was a Final between Rutland Fevas and Claires Court Fevas which went 2:0 to Rutland.

So the winning team was the Norwich Team of Toby, Natalie, Grace & Josh (Pictured)

Click Here for the full Feva results courtesy of KSail.

Winner of the prize for most improved team were Rutland SC.

Photos of the event can be seen if you Click Here

Hosted by Sevenoaks School at Bough Beech SC all competitors sailed 10 matches. The Fevas had Semi finals which saw Stamford beat Sevenoaks Red and RHS Purple beat Norwich, both going 2:0. The final also went 2:0 in favour of Stamford putting RHS Purple into second while Sevenoaks Red came third.

The Fireflies had a straight final between Rugby and RHS Blue. This went in favour of RHS Blue 2:1. 

Full results can be seen on Ksail  

The blustery conditions saw much weed dredged up from the bottom of the Maidenhead SC lake by masts and booms of the Fireflies taking part in the BSDRA Midland Championships. In fact it got so blustery that the event was curtailed after 27 races, but all competitors had sailed at least 4 races so a result was possible. One re-sail between RGS and Winchester was needed to produce a clear result which saw Winchester come out on top (despite losing the re-sail) with RGS second and Clifton College third.

Full results are on KSail and Photos can be seen if you Click Here.

West Kirby SC were due to host the Optimist Random Pairs on the Saturday and Four Boat Team Racing on the Sunday. Unfortunately, strong winds forced the abandonment of the Random Pairs on Saturday. Sunday morning saw two and a half hours of Random Pairs and 80 races sailed before going on to the 4 Boat team racing in the afternoon. In the Random Pairs two sailors had 100% wins but the order was  1st - Russell Bolger (IRE), 2nd - Jamie Gatehouse, 3rd - Jessica O Riordan.

3rd - The Nomads. So the local team are off to Berlin in October representing the UK at the Opti Team Cup.

You can see a full report if you Click Here

Birmingham were hosting the Old Joe and had 11 teams participating. It seems that Nottingham may have won the social and I am told that the Bartley Babes won the racing - thanks Niahm. Racing started on cut downs but by lunchtime the wind had dropped and they went full sail, Bartley Babes did win, with Morags (a Nottingham based team) second and S. Staffs third.

In Italy the latest event of the 2K Tour was taking place in Gaeta. Seems Royal Thames and Serpentine were having quite a battle, but the wind was not co-operating and only a single round robin could be sailed with the following results:- 1st Serpentine (GBR), 2nd Royal Thames Yacht Club (GBR), 3rd Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (ITA), 4th Bayerischer Yacht Club (GER), 5th Belgium (BEL), 6th Gamla Stan Yacht Club (SWE) 

  Unfortunately, the Royal Navy turned out to have a very strong team this year and most of the races in the relatively light conditions went to them with 1, 2, 3's. Towards the end the crews were mixed and the French did manage a win with a little help. Despite the results, it was a great fun event with the sailing getting better as time went on and everyone having a fun time.

  Photos of the event can be seen if you Click Here .

Over the weekend the second British Keelboat League event took place at Draycote using RS21's. There was some great sailing as can be seen from Nigel's Photos. The event was won by Haversham SC from Budworth and Banbury.

  Full details ore on the BKL Facebook Page.