Sevenoaks School has won the schools national team racing competition after a stellar performance. Their A team won the competition against 23 other leading school sailing teams, not losing a single race through three days of competition, while the B team were a highly commendable seventh.
The first three days of July saw the 24 best school teams in the country gather at a very sunny Rutland Sailing Club for three days of intense competition to crown the British Schools Team Racing champions.
Sevenoaks entered two teams with the A team going into the event in good form after winning various recent regional championships. The first day saw perfect conditions and some great racing which Sevenoaks A emerged from leading the event having won all their races. The B team were lying eighth overall.
The next two days saw surprisingly high winds, much more than forecast, which meant we had to pause racing for a few hours on the second day and on the final day the decision was taken, with the wind continuing to build, that knockout stages would not be possible and so the results would come from the round robin stage where every team had raced against each other. Sevenoaks A maintained their dominant performance and claimed the title with 14 wins from 14 races – an incredible achievement to go undefeated through a national final. The B team ended up a highly commendable seventh overall with 9 wins from 14 – they were just 1 win away from 4th.
Victory in this event rounds off an amazing year for the Sevenoaks A team who have won every youth and schools event that they have entered. It means the school is now reigning GBR Youth U19 National Champions and British Schools National Champions.
A really amazing season and results that have been thoroughly deserved through tremendous hard work and dedication from the Sevenoaks sailors.
Sailing for Sevenoaks:
Sevenoaks A Matt Caiger (Capt) & Annabel Richards Cossie Lewis & Becky Caiger Nicholas Davies & Charlie Cooper
Sevenoaks B Anne Marie Ratnage (Capt) & Alice Nightingale Ellie Wild & Issy Willis Alice Parker & Antonia Holle
Overall results, U18 Division: 1st Sevenoaks A 2nd Magdalen College A 3rd Royal Grammar School A 4th Winchester 5th OTRA 6th RGS B 7th Sevenoaks B 8th Clifton College 9th Royal Hospital School 10th Oakham 11th Claires Court 12th Tonbridge 13th MCS B 14th Ryde School 15th Rutland SC
