From 2nd-4th April, the BUSA 2024 finals were once again hosted at our very own Grafham Water. Many thanks to the volunteers who made this possible, especially recent alumni Callum Farnden and Jamie Webb!

With bosuning perfected minutes before launching and Grafham providing its usual sun and wind, racing got started with 28 teams in 5 of the best flights in the country. As determined by the draw, and keeping to tradition, Blue and Purple’s first race was each other, with Blue victorious in the end. The Swiss league led to engaging racing for all, racing more difficult teams if you win, and lower-ranked teams if you lose.

Racing progressed rapidly, with 166 races before heavy winds ended day 2 early. Going into the final day, Blue were ranked 1st overall, and Purple were in contention for the tie-break into the top 8. Purple sailed well, but facing challenging opponents and some unfortunate umpire calls they ranked 20th overall. They ranked above several impressive teams, with their victory over Oxford Blue bringing them significant joy and a promising sign ahead of Varsity.

Entering knockouts, Blue won the tie-break for 1st and defeated Imperial Blue 2-0 in their quarter final. The semi-final brought challenge, facing Strathclyde Pink who beat Blue in the Swiss league. Strath claimed the first race, Blue the second. In the third race, a comfortable 1-4-5 got sketchy when Robbie pulled a move at mark 3 that puzzled his teammates and spectators alike. Entering the final beat in a 1-4-6, Gordon and Lizzie watched in terror as Tim aided the situation by getting spins for a dial and becoming 6. Robbie and Luke put well-trained boat handling to use to happily return to a winning combination, further simplified by a Strath boat receiving a red flag at the finish, putting Blue in a 1-3-4 win. For legal reasons, Gordon does not want to comment on what he would have done to the rest of his team (save his wonderful crew) if Blue had lost.

Adrenaline racing, they progressed to the final against Exeter Blue, recent champions of UKTRA, who had won their semi-final against Loughborough Purple. The first race was incredibly close, with neither team sure of who won, but the finish boat confirmed Tim and Hannah had clinched position 3, winning the race with Robbie and Luke in 1. Training continued to pay off, with Blue winning the second race in a 2-3-5 and the third 1-3-4, finishing the finals 3-0 (overall results here). Celebrations notably included Gordon and Lizzie capsizing post-finish, and later Gordon discovering champagne for the first time.

Thanks to all teams for excellent racing throughout and hope all enjoyed BUSA dinner, with a reception in the beautiful St Catharine’s College.

Teams were, in their helm-crew pairings:

Cambridge Blue: Robbie McDonald and Lucius Bligh (C), Gordon Cogan-Sivarajan and Elizabeth Linsdell, Tim Hire and Hannah Cox

Cambridge Purple: Magnus Handley (C) and Lisanne Blok, Charlie Merryweather and Jenny Jiang, Ellen Morley and Sam Dernie

Cambridge recently received the Platinum Award, at this year’s RYA Green Blue University Sailing Challenge. This is the highest level of the sustainability challenge, which we will aim for again next year. As part of the challenge, we implemented a variety of environmental improvements:

• Achieved a bronze award for the Single Use Plastic Free audit together with the Grafham catering team.
• Signed up our Junior members to the RYA GreenBlue Boating Pledge.
• Organised a dinghy park and shoreline clean, focusing on recycling and the importance of compost when dealing with organic material.
• Created a Check Clean Dry your dinghy information video, demonstrating this practice tackling invasive species at events we attended.
• Investigated the sustainability of the supply and production of our kit, raising awareness and emphasising importance of reducing environmental impact.
• Increased awareness on social media by posting the RYA’s infographics and wildlife videos.
• Performed an environmental checklist with the Grafham office manager and improved last year’s environmental policy.

We are pleased to announce the new wing foiling section of the club which we have begun to launch over the past term! We now have 2 full sets of kit and have been taking them out on weekends alongside the sailors. We are looking forward to the warmer easter term, we are excited to begin teaching beginners how to use the wing on a windsurfing board and then progressing onto the foil. Below are some photos, the weather may not have been perfect but everyone had a fun time learning, getting better and  just occasionally crashing!
Robbie McDonald

On 23rd March, teams Blue (1sts) and Purple (2nds) headed to Spinnaker Sailing Club for UKTRA 2024 – the UK team racing national championships. Uncharacteristically, there was wind, with increasingly gusty conditions and several hailstorms as the day progressed. The round-robin commenced straight away, although with 24 teams it was only possible to get through most of it. Blue had a tough draw of teams, accompanied by several silly mistakes, landing them on 3/10 at the end of day 1. Purple ended on 2/10, including a win over MCS that briefly broke the Ksail results system.

Teams had a relaxed evening and approached day 2 ready to avenge their losses, with Blue in bronze league and Purple in plate league. With the sun shining, both teams got back in the game: 4/5 wins each made them champions of their respective leagues.

Congratulations to UKTRA 2024 champions Exeter Blue, who silver-surfed and defeated the West Kirby Hawks in an exciting 2-1 final, and motivated productive training before BUSA finals.

Teams were, in their helm-crew pairings:

Blue: Robbie McDonald and Lucius Bligh (C), Gordon Cogan-Sivarajan and Elizabeth Linsdell, Tim Hire and Hannah Cox

Purple: Magnus Handley (C) and Lisanne Blok, Charlie Merryweather and Jenny Jiang, Ellen Morley and Sam Dernie

On 16-17th March, a Cambridge Team of Claudia Bazyk, Hannah Cox (C), Jenny Jiang (C), Ellen Morley, Charlotte Rudd and Charlotte Watson competed at the RYA/BUSA Women’s Team Racing Nationals 2024 at Spinnaker Sailing Club. The team had a successful Day 1, winning 9/10 races with the only lost to Oxford, entering the Gold Fleet ranking 3rd overall. The team continued their strong performance on Day 2 where they redeemed themselves by winning the race against Oxford who silver surfed, entering semi-finals but lost marginally to Girls Afloat. They then defeated Southampton University in the petit-finals, finishing the event ranking 1st uni teams (and Womens BUSA champions) and 3rd overall.

Cambridge Blue was invited to attend the 2024 Oxford Top Gun at the beginning of February. As a small invitational event, all teams present are the top tier of UK student team racing. This year the event included two of the top Irish university teams also, Trinity and University College Dublin, as well as Loughborough, Exeter, Southampton, Bristol, and Oxford. The first day of racing went well, with light conditions leading to slow progress through the round robins. Highlights include a mark 3 rounding against TCD where all three TCD boats were given a red flag, and racing against Cambridge’s own Charlie Merryweather, subbing for Southampton. 

The annual Top Gun dinner on Saturday night was as always a great success – with plenty of social challenges from Cambridge sailors who had been left at home – including multiple replicated scenes from Top Gun, and Luke playing the National Anthem at the drinks reception.

With the wind picking up on Sunday, plenty more racing could occur, leaving all the teams on 20 races completed each by the end of the first stage. Cambridge finished with 10 wins out of 20, leaving them in 3rd place, behind UCD and Exeter who sat in joint 1st place with 16 wins apiece. Congratulations to Exeter for winning the final of the 2024 Oxford Top Gun 3:1, and many thanks to Oxford for a very well run event.

The team was:

Blue: Robbie McDonald (Helm) and Lucius Bligh (Crew, VC Team Racing and Captain), Tim Hire (Helm) and Hannah Cox (Crew), Gordon Cogan-Sivarajan (Helm) and Lizzie Lindsell (Crew)

24th February… Day one of the Cam Cup 2024 started with thick fog and no wind. Eventually a 2 knot breeze managed to blow the fog away and the four flights launched into beautiful sunshine.

However, hope was short-lived and one race consisting, primarily of reaches, was completed in a feeble, shifty breath of wind. Racing was abandoned when it was obvious there would be no respite from the drifty conditions.

Day two started sprightly and the armada of four flights launched excitedly only to shortly fall into a hiatus as thick fog rolled over the plains of Cambridgeshire. The fleets were corralled in the holding pen close to visible parts of the shoreline. Eventually, starting from race 9, the now bald Keith Sammons, with a committed Cambridge Uni team, stoically ran 80 HLS races amid sun and cloud.

The semis were delayed by a rather complex black flag hearing which determined the 3rd, 4th and 5th places of stage 1. It was finally resolved and the semis were able to get under way as the rain began to start. Both semis were settled 2-nil. The Petit finals were between the vigorous Rutland Raiders and Southampton. Rutland came from behind to take the third place 2:1.

The Finals saw the intriguingly named Cumberland Sausages cooked up against the Elmside Neighbours. With one win each, it looked like an event win for the Neighbours going into the last beat but then the Cumberland Sausages sizzled their way into the win and the Cam Cup!

More action from the Cam Cup 2024 in the photos below!

On the 25^th and 26^th of November Cambridge Blue and Cambridge Purple travelled to Oxford Sailing Club to compete in the 2023 Oxford Magnum. The wind on the first day was a light but consistent 4-8 knots, and sunny conditions.

Blue’s weekend got off to a positive start, with a convincing 1,2,4 win over Bristol Red. Next, a good start against RTYC white was squandered through poor first beat decision making. This was followed by a missed opportunity on the top reach, failing to convert the 2,4,6 into anything more stable. Finally Gordon was unable to make anything happen on the downwind, resulting in a RTYC 1,2. Blue continued at a .500 winning ratio, beating Southampton red and a tough loss to Exeter blue. The day went considerably downhill with a further 4 race slide to end the day at 2/8. Overall a very tough and disappointing weekend for Blue leaving a lot to work on. Starting coordination and first beat decision making being the main points.

Cambridge Purple provided the following assessment of their event: “Purple thoroughly enjoyed their day sailing against some very good opposition, only winning one less race than Blue.”

On day two we all arrived at Farmoor and waited for wind that never arrived. Overall both teams had a good day 1 and left the 2023 Oxford Magnum with many learning points.

The teams were:

Blue: Robbie McDonald (Helm) and Lucius Bligh (Crew, VC Team Racing and Captain), Tim Hire (Helm) and Hannah Cox (Crew), Gordon Cogan-Sivarajan (Helm) and Lizzie Lindsell (Crew)

Purple: Magnus Handley (Helm, Captain) and Lisanne Blok (Crew), Charlie Merryweather (Helm) and Jenny Jiang (Crew), Ellen Morley (Helm) and Sam Dernie (Crew)

We are sad to announce the passing of another club member, Roger Palmer (Jesus 1961) died at the end of January. Roger represented the university in the sailing team, and later was commodore of Hayling Island Sailing Club as well as President of the Flying Fifteen Class.

It with great regret that we report the death of Richard Thompson (Selwyn 1961). Richard was a great supporter of the club, regularly returning to umpire at many Cam Cups and Varsity matches, as well as other adhoc events. He was also a huge supporter of team racing and sailing in general, serving as principal officer of the UK Team Racing Association until 2022 and he had previously chaired both the Team Racing Working Party and Racing Rules Working Party at World Sailing. He was a huge driver behind the modern team racing rule book – there isn’t a rule in Appendix D that wasn’t thoroughly scrutinised and challenged by him in a way only a Cambridge lawyer could. Richard received a RYA volunteer award from the Princess Royal in 2021. The RYA have written a tribute on their website.

A service of thanksgiving will be held in St Mary’s Church, High Street, Fairford, Gloucestershire, GL7 4AF on 21 March at 2pm. The service will be followed by refreshments in the church rooms opposite.