BUCS Fleet Racing Championships at Plymouth

by Tom Gruitt 9 Nov 2010 07:41 GMT 6-7 November 2010

Exeter University retain the BUSA Sailing Team

Perfect conditions greeted the students at the Mount Batten Centre in Plymouth for the first University Championships of the season.

Sailors from Exeter University fought hard to retain their title, beating off fierce competition from Plymouth University. After six races for the Fireflys and Laser 2s and five races for the Handicap and Laser fleets, only one point separated the top two teams.

Racing was especially tight in the Laser and Laser 2 Fleets. Swansea University's Dyfrig Mon and Emily Craig managed to win the Laser 2 fleet after tying on points, from Brunel University's James Thomas and Tom Clapton. In third place, but only a point behind the top two teams, was Exeter University's Ben Muskett and Mike Wood.

The Laser fleet racing was dominated by Stuart Godwin from Bristol University, who won 3 of the 5 races. Stuart also takes the title from his brother Robert Godwin, who won the Trophy in 2009 and 2008, for Nottingham University. On joint points in 2nd and 3rd place was Oscar McVeigh from Plymouth University and Matt Reid from Southampton Solent University.

In this year's Handicap fleet, the dominance of the RS200 was broken by Exeter University's Matt Rainback and James Rushden who sailed their 29er into 2nd place, missing out on the top slot by 3 points to Southampton University's Ben Saxton and Holly Scott in their RS200. In 3rd place were their Southampton team mates, Stevie Tiernan and Tim Goodhew in their RS200.

Plymouth University's Pete Johnson and Lucy Hoyte and James Hopson and Izzy Gill-Taylor finished a disappointing 2nd and 3rd in the Firefly Fleet. For Pete Johnson, this is becoming a habit after coming 2nd last year at QMSC. Consistency was key, for the winners from Exeter University, Tim Saxton and Sophie Ormsby. Tim Saxton commented that the event was "well run, at a great venue, we've had a great time. Racing was intense and the Race Officers did a great job in difficult conditions."

Thanks go to BUCS for supporting this event and to all the volunteers at the Mount Batten Centre, the University of Plymouth and Plymouth University Sailing Club from BUSA.

Full results are available on the BUSA website, Downloads page.