At the weekend, 21 competing sailors and Tom Mclean made the trip to Draycote Water SC in the midlands (not north) for the 2017 BUCS Fleet Racing Championships hosted by Warwick University. Wessex had boats entered in 3/4 fleets with the firefly fleet having a massive 64 entries!
Wessex were held up by crash after crash on the Friday night but were greeted by the poshest of travel lodge’s to play host to ourselves and our Pre’s. Both nights consisted of loose socials and Saturday’s Hogwarts theme meant we rocked skirts and shirts for our night out as Hermione. Fair play to everyone who shrugged off hangovers (with the help of McDonalds) and managed to get racing!
The weekend consisted of very tight shift racing in a cold and variable 8-18knots. Wessex 29ers dominated the Asymmetric fleet with a 1,2 - Crispin/Oli taking an impressive 5 bullets to finish 1st, followed by 29er retiree and our commodore Gus, crewed by James Leetch in 2nd. Jo/Charlie sailing an RS 200 narrowly missed out on 3rd overall by just one point but still claimed a respectable 5th and 1st girls with the fleet.
The battle for the laser title was intense with some big name’s missing the class Inlands for the infinitely more important BUCS championships. Wessex’s Jack Cookson finished a solid 3rd, joint points with his nemesis and rival from Bristol in 2nd, while Ceci Wollman finished 4th girl in the laser radial fleet.
In the hotly contested Firefly’s Southampton performed well with Matt/Bobby’s (mainly Matt’s) on point and sometimes risky tactics resulting in them taking a dominating win counting all but one result inside the top 3. Pete/Tom also sailed very solidly to clinch 3rd place showing them to be the consistency king’s despite only one result inside the top 5.
In the overall university results Southampton excelled claiming gold in the Men’s and bronze in the Ladies. Cheers to Warwick for hosting a great event and everyone from Wessex for making the trip!
Photo Creds to Joshua East www.Instagram.com/JJREast
