RYA/BUSA Women's Team Racing Championships at Spinnaker Sailing Club

Royal Hospital School win RYA/BUSA Women's Team Racing Championships © RHS

A young team from Royal Hospital School (RHS) has been celebrating after taking overall victory at the RYA/BUSA Women's Team Racing Nationals.

It is the second time that a prize for the first Under-19 team has been offered and this year saw RHS going all the way to also claim the national title and trophy.

The 2024 edition at Spinnaker Sailing Club (16-17 March) saw 14 teams battling it out for the RYA/BUSA (British University Sailing Association) championships.

Following a short delay on the Saturday waiting for the wind to arrive, Race Officer James Oborne delivered a busy schedule for Stage 1 which saw 70 races completed in total with 10 for each team.

RHS Grey topped the leaderboard ahead of Girls Afloat and Cambridge, each with nine wins, while hot on their heels with seven wins apiece were Southampton University in fourth and RHS Blue in fifth, again separated on countback.

Close racing

Sunday then saw the teams split into Gold and Silver fleets before the knockout stages, which began with a repechage between Oxford Blue (winners of the Silver League) and Cambridge (fourth in the Gold League).

Cambridge won the race to set the stage for the semi-finals with RHS Blue v Southampton and Girls Afloat v Cambridge, both of which went 2:0.

A closely fought petit-final for the BUSA title was won 2:1 by Cambridge from Southampton. A best-of-five final then saw Girls Afloat claim the first two races - but an impressive comeback saw RHS Blue win the next three races and the title.

Georgie Stammers, captain of the winning team, said: "It was a really smoothly run, well organised event that had a bubbly friendly atmosphere with great team racing taking place throughout the whole weekend. The organisers made the racing fair and enjoyable, we all had a great time."

1st Overall and Under-19 - Royal Hospital School Blue 2nd Overall - Girls Afloat 3rd Overall and BUSA winners - Cambridge 4th Overall and 2nd university - Southampton

Full results RYA/BUSA Women's Team Racing Nationals

Presenting the prizes was Sian Reynolds, Chair of RYA Cymru Wales, who was attending the event as an umpire and said: "It was fantastic to see everyone enjoying themselves on the water with great racing and it was fabulous to see a young team winning."

The event was supported by the RYA, BUSA, UK Team Racing Association and kSail, with thanks going to Spinnaker Sailing Club for hosting and the many volunteers who gave their time both on the water and on shore.

Next up is this weekend's RYA National Team Racing Championships (23- 24 March 2024) at Spinnaker Sailing Club, bringing together the top teams from the UK circuit to compete for the Prince Philip Trophy.

Follow all the action as the results come in at kSail Events.