2024 British Keelboat League Gets Under Way this Weekend
March 9th & 10th sees the start of the British Keelboat League (BKL) with the first event being sailed at Queen Mary reservoir in West London.
BSDRA Schools Keelboat League
This first event, which is restricted to School teams, is being run by the Royal Thames Yacht Club (RTYC) on behalf of the British Schools Dinghy Racing Association (BSDRA), and will be sailed in the RTYC fleet of Sonars.
Tom Partridge, Rear Commodore Sailing RTYC, is looking forward to welcoming the schools to the event and said ‘As a club, we’re very lucky to have such a central location and our fleet of Sonars are the perfect boat for these young sailors to make their first venture into keelboat racing. We see these sailors as the future of our sport and look forward to seeing them in action this weekend.’
19 teams from schools from across the South and East of England will be competing, with the top two schools winning a place in the BKL finals at the end of September, where they’ll do battle with the winners of the 7 other British leagues. In previous years the schools and youth teams that have won through to the BKL finals have equipped themselves well against their more senior competition and have progressed to represent their sailing clubs in the Sailing Champions League in Europe.
Ed Sibson of BSDRA is expecting the event this weekend to be a close run affair as some of the top schools will be competing. ‘Our results will be posted in real time online, so friends and family who are unable to watch the event from the reservoir wall, will be able to keep up with their teams progress throughout the weekend.’ said Ed.
Follow this link to see the results as they are posted.
Scottish Student Sailing BKL League
One week later on 16-17 March, the 2nd BKL event of the series is to be sailed at Port Edgar Yacht Club, promoted by Scottish Student Sailing, supported by Tunnocks. As last year, this event very early in the Scottish sailing season is a sell out, so by the end of March we’ll already know 4 of the teams who’ll be competing the BKL final.
Women’s Open Keelboat Championships BKL Event
It’s not too late to start your club on it’s journey to compete in the BKL finals. Entries are now open for the Women’s BKL event which is to be held at the Royal Southern Yacht Club on 11th – 12th May. This is a fantastic event, sailed in RS21’s as part of the Women’s Open Keelboat Championship, it’s as much fun off the water as it is on it.
Enter for the Women’s BKL event here.
Good luck to all the clubs who compete in the British Keelboat League this season and we look forward to seeing you win through to represent us in the 2025 Sailing Champions League.