Sidney students sailing success

Emmanuel won both Team Racing and Windsurfing Cuppers held at Grafham Water in June. Sidney Sussex won the Silver Fleet Team Racing, and Murray Edwards won the Silver Fleet Windsurfing.

A record number of 23 teams (19 colleges) entered for the team racing event and they sailed in glorious conditions. The team racing round robin produced four evenly-matched semi-finalists: Christs, Emmanuel, Magdalene, and Sidney Sussex (the Silver Fleet winners). Emmanuel powered through 2-0 over Sidney Sussex in the first semi-final. Christs lost their first semi-final race to Magdalene, but refused to be fazed by this outcome and went on to win 2-1.   Emmanuel emerged victorious over Christs (2-0), and are worthy winners of 2018 Cuppers. Both semi-finals and the final were notable for the high standard of team racing that took place.

The good news does not end there! Cambridge came out on top in both the Varsity Match and the Ladies Varsity Match held in Weymouth in the National Sailing Academy’s Elliot 6M boats earlier this month.

The Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society expected the outcome of the Varsity Match, with Cambridge fielding a strong team drawn from their BUSA runners-up and 6th placed teams. As a result, the score was 4-0 in their favour. A big well done to Sidney’s Alex Smallwood, who sailed on the victorious Varsity Team and gained his Half Blue.

In the Ladies Match, Oxford were the favoured team, being Ladies National and BUSA winners to the 5th (National) and 3rd (BUSA) results of Cambridge. However, in a repeat of last year, the Cambridge Ladies showed better seamanship in making the transition from Firefly sailing to the different momentum and sail-trimming characteristics of the 21ft Elliots. So they ran out victors with an emphatic score of 4-1.  

You can take a look at some more photographs of the event on the CUCrC website and the Oxford and Cambridge Sailing Society website.