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)