Last weekend 18 Exeter sailors headed up to Draycote Water SC for the 2017 BUCS/BUSA Fleet Racing Championships hosted by Warwick University. Exeter had boats entered in 3 out of the 4 fleets.
After our long drive up to Warwick on Friday night, we were greeted by some lovely Warwick sailors who agreed to put us up for the weekend. The weekend consisted of two very large and loose socials, the Hogwarts theme for Saturday night meant we rocked our Dobby rags to the infamous sailors curry with Cardiff and Bristol. Well Done to all for sailing so well with a hangover on Sunday morning!
Overall the weekend consisted of very shifty racing in a cold 8-18 knots. The Firefly fleet was tough as ever, with a massive 64 entries! The boys performed extremely well with Murray/ Tim finishing 5th and Ollie/Lewis not far behind in 8th. While the girls finished 3rd(Emma/ Emma ), 6th (Willow/ Jess) and 11th (Sophie Florrie) girl pairings.
Jessie and Emma dominated the girls Fast Hanicap Fleet in the 29er finishing 1st girl and 4th overall, with only one result out of the top 3 counted. While Ed and Will were not far behind in the RS200.
The laser fleet proved to be more intense than ever with big name’s missing the class Inlands for BUCS. Once again the girls dominated in their Radials with Anya finishing 1st girl and Laura 3rd. The boys also sailed extremely well with Jack Shepherd finishing 15th and Jack Hanslope finishing 18th.
In the overall university results, Exeter managed to hold onto their Women’s team trophy for another year – a hat-trick! And with the Male team finishing 6th we finished joint 4th as a University with Birmigham. Thank you to Warwick for hosting another great Fleet Nationals and all the sailors from Exeter for making the trip and sailing so well!
Sailing love xoxo