Over the weekend of the 15 and 16 October 42 Youth (U19) and Junior (U16) teams descended upon Farmoor Reservoir near Oxford to compete in the RYA Youth and Junior Team Racing Championships. The annual event sees the best young sailors from all over the country competing against each other representing their national squad, sailing club or school; the event is essentially the national championships. Sevenoaks entered one team in the U19s and two in the U16s. Day 1 saw all teams racing in leagues to qualify for gold, silver and bronze leagues for day 2. Sevenoaks had a great day with Sevenoaks Red in the U16s finishing top after stage 1 with 10 wins out of 12 and Sevenoaks White qualified for the silver league in 10th place overall. In the U19s Sevenoaks qualified 2nd with 9 wins out of 10.
Day 2 saw the competition step up in intensity with the teams now seeded into leagues so each race would be hard and crucial. In the U19s Sevenoaks continued their strong performance and maintained their 2nd place. Unfortunately it was decided by the organisers that there would not be time for semi-finals and finals and so the overall results were decided on the league positions. Sevenoaks U19s therefore ended 2nd overall, top school team and a great achievement for their first outing of the season as a team to beat so many accomplished sailors. In the U16s Sevenoaks Red who had led after stage one suffered a couple of narrow defeats in crucial races and ended up 4th overall, Sevenoaks White had a good second day pulling up to 8th place overall.
The results mean that Sevenoaks were the top school teams in both the U19 and U16 divisions which is a tremendous achievement. They also showed yet again that they are more than capable of taking on and beating national squad and club teams who are able to pick from a much wider pool of sailors.
Sailing for Sevenoaks;
U19s (2nd Overall and 1st school team)
Oliver Kidd (Capt) & Helen Jones
Matt Caiger & Alessandro Foglia
Nick Davies & Charlie Cooper
U16s
Sevenoaks Red (4th Overall and 1st School Team)
Cossie Lewis (Capt) & Becky Caiger
Will Caiger & Imogen Salmon
Josh Davies & Will Powell
Sevenoaks White (8th Overall)
Anne Marie Ratnage (Capt) & Issy Willis
Alice Parker & Ellie Wild
Sean Lee & Ed Salmon
