RHS sailors beat University teams in the London Duck 2014

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London Duck, RHS, rhs sport, royal hospital school, Sailing, team racing, the royal hospital school, University of London

Over the weekend the Royal Hospital School Sailing Team competed in the 2014 London Duck Team Racing Trophy hosted by the University of London Sailing Club on the Welsh Harp Reservoir.

Sixteen teams took party, most of whom were representing Universities including Cambridge and Durham and a team representing Ireland.

Over two days, the RHS team raced against the fifteen other teams, performing exceptionally well against far more experienced sailors, to finish with eight wins. This was enough for the RHS sailors to qualify into the Gold Fleet knock-out round on Sunday.

In this final round, RHS gave some of their best performances of the weekend beating teams from Birmingham and Surrey University but to eventually lose to Cambridge and take sixth place overall.

Andy Nutton, Director of Sailing, said “Our much younger sailors gained a huge amount of experience from competing against stronger university teams and this will put them in a good position for the inter-school team racing season this summer.”

Success for RHS at the BSDRA East Kent Autumn Team Racing

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2013 King;s College Cup, BSDRA East Kent Autumn Team Racing 2013, RHS, rhs sailing, rhs team sailing, team racing, team sailing, the royal hospital school

On Saturday 28 September team sailors from the Royal Hospital School travelled to Westbere Lake, near Canterbury, to take part in the BSDRA East Kent Autumn Team Racing. They sailed confidently in Fireflies and 420s against top sailing schools; Sevenoaks, The King’s School Canterbury, Ardingly and Millfield, in gusty conditions.

RHS finished Round 1 with 5 wins and had taken the lead, closely followed by King’s on 4 wins. In Round 2, RHS were caught up by the home team leaving King’s and RHS with 9 wins a piece. The final result was decided through tie-breaker races: the RHS team showed impressive racing skills and became worthy winners of the 2013 King’s Challenge Cup.

• 1st The Royal Hospital School
• 2nd The King’s School Canterbury
• 3rd Sevenoaks B
• 4th Millfield
• 5th (joint) Kent Schools SA, Sevenoaks A and Ardingly

Registration Open for Team Racing Clinics at the Royal Hospital School Sailing Academy

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alton water, Fireflies, RHS, rhs sailing, rhs sport, royal hospital school, RS Fevas, rya, Sailing, sailing clinics, team racing

The Royal Hospital School Sailing Academy will be holding a series of Team Racing clinics this Autumn on Alton Water Reservoir. These half-day clinics will use the School’s RS Fevas and Fireflies and teach the art of team racing on the following dates:

• 21st September 2013
• 5th October 2013
• 9th November 2013
• 23rd November 2013
• 7th December 2013

Registrations are welcome from youth teams of six sailors with spaces available for a maximum of three visiting teams per clinic. The sessions are free although teams will need to provide a damage deposit cheque for £100.

RS Fevas

This is a great opportunity for like-minded organisations to get together and enjoy an exciting form of racing at our RYA Training centre. For more information or to register your interest please contact the School’s Director of Sailing, Andy Nutton at anutton@royalhospitalschool.org

RHS host Inter-School Team Racing Regatta

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competition, racing, RHS, RHS annual regatta, rhs sailing, royal hospital school, RSFeva, Sailing, success, suffolk, team racing, the royal hospital school

On Saturday 11 May the Royal Hospital School hosted an inter-school Team Racing Regatta on neighbouring Alton Water Reservoir. Twelve teams from 5 different schools, one from Alton Water SC and one made up of former RHS pupils took part in the Junior and Senior Regattas.  The conditions were squally and the temperatures unseasonably chilly; but all of the 72 sailors competed well over the standard ‘starboard S’ course.

RSFevas on Alton Water

Racing in Fireflies in the Senior Regatta got seriously competitive from the start with the top teams of Ipswich School and RHS fighting it out. The race ended with Ipswich scraping the win despite RHS having the upper hand until the last few moments. This thoroughly galvanised the RHS sailors and they then went on to win all of their next 4 races. The race between Ipswich School A and B teams provided spectators with great excitement as the A’s scraped the victory with some rather tactical team racing by Henry Mills slowing down two B team boats for his team mates to pass. It was good to see some former RHS pupils, taking part in the form of the Old Hospolinas, who enjoyed the competition but were undone by more practised, and younger, sailors. We hope they will try their luck again next year and that even more former RHS sailors will take part in this regular event. The Senior Regatta finished with RHS 1 and 2 racing in one semi-final and Ipswich School A and B in the other. After some more close racing, the final was between RHS 1 V Ipswich school A. This was a three race final but this time RHS were far too strong; winning in imperious form 2 – 0. The Regatta finished with 1^st RHS 1 2^nd Ipswich school A 3^rd RHS 2 – Ipswich school B 5^th Old Hospolians and 6^th Alton Water Warriors.

With the wind strength increasing as the day went on, the younger competitors sailing in RSFevas in the Junior Regatta, were finding it harder and harder to keep the boats the right way up. Despite some determined racing and excellent effort, this meant that after 10 races the final was between RHS 1 and Ipswich School. This proved to be a dominant show of strength from RHS with Freddie Grogono and Tom Joice leading from the off and Dan Patten making the ‘move of the day’ by pushing from 6^th place to finish 3^rd.  The Junior Regatta finished with 1^st RHS 1, 2^nd Ipswich school, 3^rd Ipswich High School, 4^th RHS 2, 5^th Orwell Park and 6^th Norwich School.

Thanks must go to all the staff from the visiting schools – without their help the Regatta would not have happened, and of course to all the competitors. Let hope that next year we will be blessed with less testing conditions.