Last weekend six Sevenoaks sailors flew up to Scotland to compete in the RYA Ladies Team Racing Nationals. Sevenoaks was the only school team competing against 16 university and senior teams and did very well, winning the silver division final.
Despite the forecast of freezing temperatures, it seems that we were actually at the right end of the country and enjoyed two days of sunshine and good winds, perfect for team race sailing. The girls raced ten races on Saturday and ended up with a 5/5 record, which included some very narrow defeats, one notably to the eventual winners Oxford Blue.
On Sunday the competition split into leagues and Sevenoaks competed in the silver league for those ranked 7-12 from Saturday’s racing. The team enjoyed a great day and their boat speed and teamwork really shone through. They finished the league ranked second and qualified for the silver final, against Loughborough University, who had proven to be a bit of a nemesis for Sevenoaks having defeated them twice already in two close races over the weekend. Sevenoaks were pumped up for revenge and went on to win the final 2-0, winning the silver division and finishing seventh overall. This is an excellent achievement for a school team – finishing ahead of ten university and senior club teams; the team received many positive comments from fellow competitors and race officials during the course of the event.
The team are all Lower Sixth and so will have the chance to race again for the school next year. Having seen how well they can compete already, they will definitely be back and in contention in 2019.
Sailing for Sevenoaks: Cossie Lewis (Capt), Annabel Richards, Anne-Marie Ratnage, Alice Parker, Ellie Wild, Izzy Willis
Overall Results: Gold division:1 Oxford Blue 2 RNCYC 3 BUSA 4 Exeter 5 Cambridge 6 Edinburgh Silver division:1 Sevenoaks School 2 Loughborough 3 SSS 4 Cardiff 5 BBB 6 Oxford Crimson
Bronze division: 1 Trinity College Dublin 2 Glasgow Manchego 3 Strath Diamonds 4 Strath Sapphires 5 Sparkle Squad
