Stage one consisted of sixty four races enabling each of the 18 teams involved to compete in six races. This was followed by Semi-finals and Finals for the Trophy (top 4) and for The Plate (places 5-8).

The Semi finals saw Magdalen College School take on Sevenoaks and Royal Grammar School compete against Winchester. This produced a Final between MCS and RGS which required three races to produce a winner in the form of the RGS team of Nick Forbes, James Dickinson, Oliver Perkins, Matt Shaw, Sam Rooke and Henry Hawkes (See Photo).

The plate competition also went to three races with Clifton College losing out to Sherborne School 1:2.

Full results can be seen on KSail  For some photos by Nigel Click Here

Meanwhile, at Grafham Water Sailing Club Cambridge was sailing their 125th Random Pairs Event. This event was also being supported by Ksail to view the event page Click Here. Congratulations are due to Josh and Milly who won the event with 10 race wins from the 11 sailed.

The Inter Services Team Racing due to be held at Oxford SC has been called off because there was very little prospect of any wind. It will be re-scheduled for May or June.

So far, the British Schools Dinghy Racing Southerns, due at Spinnaker SC on Saturday are unaffected - we will see how they go.

We offer our congratulations to Southampton Green who took the title from Cambridge Blue 3:0. We also offer our best wishes to all of the officials who did a great job in some very difficult conditions, it was very cold even if the snow didn't really get going.

To see the full results go the the Ksail page.

These were followed by the annual RYA/BUCS/BUSA Match Racing Championships in a rather warmer Portland Harbour. A new format saw 18 teams competing in three groups of six. The 15 flights required for this were completed on a long first day. The top two from each group were through to the Quarter finals Ted Blowers (Plymouth), Murray Hampshire (Exeter), Tom Williams (Bath), Alex Philpott (Loughborough), Joe Burns (Bristol) and Matt Whitfield (Southampton)  The rest were allocated to one of two further groups for a repercharge.

On the second day the final two teams going into the quarters-finals were determined, Tom Swyers (Newcastle) and Balazs Gecse (St Andrews) topping out their respective groups. The plan had been to get well into the quarters today but with the wind remaining very light it was only possible to get one flight completed before we called it a day.

Monday dawned with the best wind of the weekend but raining. All quarter finals went 2:0, saving time and producing semi finalists of Matt Whitfield, Alex Philpott, Joe Burns and Tom Williams. The Semi finals were also settled 2:0 to produce a first to three wins final between Tom Williams and Matt Whitfield. Matt took the first race but then Tom came back, leveling the score and then going ahead 2:1. However in match four Matt led off the line and evened the score making a sudden death fifth race a necessity. Matt lead off the line, as the wind swung to the right, giving Tom very little chance to come back and that was the way that it ended with Matt Whitfield and Southampton taking the title.

Full results are on Twitter @NigelSailing  Photos can be seen if you Click Here  Follow the RYA Match Racing Facebook Page

Well almost!

This weekend there is a World Sailing International Umpire Seminar in Glasgow leading up to the BUSA Team Racing Finals on Monday to Wednesday.  Candidates include 6 from GBR and 4 from other European countries. Good luck to them all. Good luck especially to Diego from the team in Palamos!

The BUSA Team Racing Finals are taking place at Strathclyde Loch, Strathclyde Country Park, Motherwell, ML1 3ED. For the official Championship page Click Here. Probably the best place to follow the event will be on the K-Sail portal which will be putting up biographies and virtually live results. For that you need to Click Here If you want the gossip the best place is probably the BUSA Facebook Page.

The National School Sailing Association 2x2 Team Racing on Saturday and possibly a single day event at Bough Beech seem to be the only events this weekend.

The NSSA had 24 teams taking part and despite some quite light conditions managed 72 races in stage 1, so everyone got 5 races. Stage 2 comprised Semis and Finals with all places taken by teams from Oxford. Magdalen College 1 took on the Oxford Team Racing academy team in semi-final 1 and beat them 2:0. MCS2 took on the Oxford Sail Training Trust team and also beat them 2:0, to set up a Final between the two MCS Teams.

In the Peti- final the OTRA team beat OSTT 2:0 to finish 3rd. The final was a little more complicated with the MCS1 team of Adam Rathmell. Ashi Banerjee. Lucy Greenwood, Edmund Corker needing three races to demonstrate their superiority and win the event (See photo) 

Full race results are available from ksail. For details of the NSSA Click Here

Also happening, on Thursday of this week, was a Team Race Training Day for members of the British Schools Dinghy Racing Association. Hosted by Claires Court School at Maidenhead SC there was a practical session on Umpiring which built on the theory session held earlier in the year run by Chris Atkins. There was also a session on coaching Team Racing led by Ed Sibson. It was a really good day, highly recommended if you are a teacher and would like to know more about Team Racing.

We also heard that Worcester Youth Sailing have a flight of 6 Feva dinghies for sale. Contact us if you are interested.