Ryde School with Upper Chine travelled from the Isle of Wight with 3 teams of four sailors to compete in the first of the 2024 British Keelboat Leagues. They were joined by 3 teams from the Royal Hospital School, 2 from both Tonbridge and Winchester and 1 each from Claires Court, Cokethorpe, Kim Bolton, Oxford, Radley College, RGS Guildford, Sherborne and the Kings School Canterbury.
The event promoted by the British Schools Dingy Racing Association, and organised by the Royal Thames Yacht Club in their fleet of 9 Sonars, was sailed at Queen Mary Reservoir (West London) over the weekend of 9th – 10th March.
The teams, a mix of experienced dinghy team racers and some with very few sailing hours in keelboats eagerly set out onto the reservoir to familiarise themselves with the Sonars after the Saturday morning briefing. Quickly settling in, to what were unfamiliar boats, all the teams soon got into their stride with boat and sail handlings roles allowing the race officer to get 24 windward / leeward races completed in day 1.
The format for the event followed that of other BKL events and with 9 boats being sailed, teams were swapped out between races to ensure that all teams raced against every other team on almost every boat in the fleet. The swift changeovers by the support ribs followed the well planned schedule that had been provided by KSail who facilitate the BKL series with the technology to publish result online as the boats crossed the line.
After day 1 of some very close racing that kept the umpires busy, Ryde (Black) were back in the club house and sitting top of the leaderboard, just two points ahead of Sherborne School in second and Oxford in third.
Day 2 saw the teams in the top half of the table switching positions as the average points calculation churned at the end of each race and by completion of race 42, Royal Hospital School (Grey), (Blue), (Pink) and Claires Court finished in 4th – 7th respectively with just 0.42 points between them.
In the final race of the day Ryde (Black) crossed the line in 1st place, followed closely by Sherborne, who fittingly finished in 1st and 2nd place overall in the event. Oxford, who’d completed their race schedule some 4 races earlier watched in anticipation as Royal Hospital School (Grey) sailed in 3 of those final 4 races and were in with a chance over snatching 3rd place from them. It wasn’t to be however, with Oxford finishing 3rd overall and 0.5 points ahead of the chasing team. Full results can be seen here. RESULTS
Brian Mumford, Head of Sailing at Kings School Canterbury, said ‘ What a great event!’.
Many thanks to the Royal Thames Yacht Club for running such a well organised event and getting the 2024 BKL series underway. (ed)
Congratulations to Ryde School with Upper Chine. 12 wins, 5 x 2nds and 3 x 3rds was an impressive sequence of results to post.
Ryde will be joined by Sherborne School as our first two qualifiers through to the British Keelboat League finals on 27th – 29th September and will be in with a chance to win through to represent British clubs in the Sailing Champions League in Europe in 2025.
Up this weekend. The Scottish BKL event when two more youth teams will qualify to join the Schools teams in the BKL Final. The Womens BKL event to be sailed on RS21’s at the Royal Southern YC on May 11th – 12th is now open for entries. ENTER HERE