Cam Cup Team Racing at Grafham Water Sailing Club
by Anthony Butler 2 Mar 2015 12:12 GMT
28 February - 1 March 2015
Oxford University Blue win the coveted Cam Cup © Anthony Butler
Oxford Blue proved worthy winners of the 15th Cam Cup, held at Grafham on 28 Feb / 1 Mar 2015, not dropping a single race of the 12 they sailed. Durham 1 slipped into the Silver Medal position by winning their 13th race, on Sunday morning, and Cambridge Blue took Bronze - all from an entry of 17 teams.
Conditions were breezy on Saturday, but the unsurpassed race officer duo of Jo Lucas and Keith Sammons went into overdrive and, with the assistance of a strong umpiring and support team, no less that 102 races were run - a record for a single day at Grafham. In spite of the day of energetic sailing, competitors were more than ready for the excellent formal dinner that evening, and for the Downing bar and clubbing activities that followed.
Sunday dawned bright, sunny, and windy, but sailable. During the first set of races, however, the wind built up to overpowering strength and racing had to be halted - with only two boats failing to finish and get ashore unassisted. With the wind still at gale force strength at 12:00hrs, and reasonable conditions not likely to arrive until late afternoon, further racing was abandoned and overall outcomes decided on the round robin results.
A big 'thank you' goes to Oxford and Magdalene College School for the loan of boats, to the race team of Jo and Keith, to the Umpires listed below, to Amanda Hebbert in her time-honoured role of Finisher, and to a good many nameless Cambridge students who helped out over the two days to ensure an excellent and memorable event.
Umpires: Bruce Hebbert, Martin Claasen, George Ehlers, Ed Fryer, David Lees, Nick Rusbridge, Jonathan Turnbull.
Tie for 3rd was broken in favour of Cambridge as they beat SSCM. Tie for 11th was broken in favour of Bristol 2 on the basis of average points. The three-way tie for 13th was ordered Nottingham Pink, London White, and Nottingham White on the basis of points in the races they sailed against each other.
Results after 105 races:
| Result | Team | Sailed | Won | Points |
| 1 | Oxford Blue | 12 | 12 | 87 |
| 2 | Durham 1 | 13 | 11 | 106 |
| 3 | Cambridge Blue | 12 | 10 | 96 |
| 4 | SSCM (ex Bristol) | 12 | 10 | 108 |
5 | Royal Thames Red | 13 | 10- | 108 |
| 6 | Swansea | 12 | 8 | 119 |
| 7 | Bristol 1 | 13 | 8 | 117 |
| 8 | Cambridge Yellow | 12 | 7 | 124 |
| 9 | Durham 2 | 12 | 6 | 135 |
| 10 | London Purple | 12 | 5 | 148 |
| 11 | Bristol 2 | 12 | 3 | 146 |
| 12 | Oxford Green | 12 | 3 | 152 |
| 13 | Nottingham Pink | 13 | 3 | 154 |
| 14 | London White | 13 | 3 | 167 |
| 15 | Nottingham White | 13 | 3 | 168 |
| 16 | Southampton Blue | 12 | 2 | 145 |
| 17 | Birmingham | 12 | 1 | 145 |