The weekend of the 25 & 26 February saw the RYA & British Universities Ladies Team Racing Nationals take place at Spinnaker Sailing club near Southampton. The event consisted of 14 teams representing various school, university and club teams from all over the UK. The conditions were extremely challenging with big gusts blowing through all weekend leading to a number of capsizes and some very physical sailing. The Sevenoaks team had a great first day finishing 5th overall in the league stage after racing all the other teams, with a number of notable victories over much older university and club teams including Bristol and Southampton University. With the top 7 teams qualifying for the gold league this represented a great achievement and guaranteed that they would be crowned U19 National Ladies Champions. Day two saw the team racing against the top ranked teams which was a great challenge for the young team; they beat Bristol University for the second time and had a number of extremely close races but ultimately found it tricky in the windy conditions against older sailors. The team ended up 7th overall having learnt an awful lot and receiving a lot of praise from fellow competitors, event organisers and umpires. The team and the school should be very proud of the way they performed and given that half the team are in Year 11 they will definitely be back stronger in years to come to defend their U19 title!
Sevenoaks School (7th Overall and U19 National Ladies Champions)
Holly Macaskill (Capt) & Issy LewisCossie Lewis & Helen JonesAnne Marie Ratnage & Alice Parker
