Sailing - March 2010

This term saw two weekends’ worth of university fixtures away at Warwick and Reading Universities; a friendly regatta against rivals Sevenoaks and local teams; the National Schools Sailing Association Championships at home; a friendly triangular away to Eton and Wellington, and the Oxford District School Sailing Association (ODSSA) Fleet Racing Regatta at home.

Magdalen embarrassed several good university teams: Birmingham 2, Edinburgh Ladies, Swansea 1, Reading 1, Portsmouth 2, Durham 1, Nottingham 1, Brunel 1 and Brunel 2 were all brushed aside. Magdalen finished both university events as winners of the silver league, securing conventional student prizes of beer and chocolate.

Away at Sevenoaks Magdalen beat the hosts’ 1st and 2nd VIs heavily in the league stages, then threw away the final to take second place over all.

At the National Schools Sailing Association Championships Magdalen secured decisive wins in all their races, keeping the title for a second year.

Away at Eton Magdalen came unstuck, beating Wellington heavily but making bad choices against the hosts. The result: Magdalen second. A day to be remembered, and not repeated.

The ODSSA Fleet Racing Regatta saw extremely tight racing between Will Lau and Sam Jenkins, with other 1st and 2nd team sailors never too far behind. Magdalen sailors dominated the top of the fleet: in the end Lau (crewed by Tom Maxwell) beat Jenkins (crewed by Will Ing) with a half-second faster average lap time, and Tom Simmons (L4th) took third.