Cambridge Pink and Orange headed north to Birmingham for the 2021 Brummy Boom 0n 27/28 November 2021. Blue stayed at home and indulged in some serious training at Grafham.

Gale-force winds prevented any sailing on the Saturday, but a good programme of races was possible for everyone in the fair but chilly conditions on Sunday. Pink and Orange stormed through their round robins, but Orange had to concede to Pink in the semis. Pink went on to beat Nottingham in the final, with Orange taking the Bronze.

Congratulations to both Purple and Orange on a splendid performance!

2021 Brummy Boom Team Photos

Two Cambridge teams were among the 24 entrants contesting the 2021 UKTRA Team Racing Championships held late in the season at Spinnaker SC on 13/14 November 2021 – 9 of the teams being universities. Cambridge was well-represented in the final by Cindies (4 recent CUCrC sailors), where West Kirby Hawks won 2-0.

Non- and ex-university teams dominated the competition, with no student team making the Gold League on the Sunday. Both Cambridge teams made the Silver league, with Blue finishing 6th and Yellow (now Purple) 8th. Exeter, Southampton, and Imperial finished ahead. Bristol, Exeter, and Oxford fought things out in the Bronze League. Detailed results will be available for a time on the kSail website.

Light winds on the Saturday delayed the start of racing until 11am, but then filled in to give good racing throughout the day. The wind was light again on Sunday – but satisfactory for racing. A big thank-you to Spinnaker SC for their excellent running of this championship, and to umpires and helpers who all contributed to a very successful event.

2021 UKTRA Photos

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Cambridge Orange participated in the 2021 Howler at Leeds and had the satisfaction of beating the winners, Sheffield, in the round robins. However, a couple of unlucky instances meant they did not make the knock-out stage of the event.

Orange Team:
Magnus Handley (Capt) & Rosie Jones
Paul McMeekin & Luke Bligh
Will Adler & Abbie Wallace

2021 Howler Team Photo

On Saturday 2nd October, Cambridge won the open varsity contest 4-3 and Oxford Women won the Ladies competition 4-2. The event ran in parallel with the O&CSS Generations event, where Cambridge 80s triumphed over Cambridge Current 2 in a ‘sudden death’ one-race final. For a full report head over to the O&CSS site.

Cambridge Blue were 2nd, Yellow 3rd, Purple 6th, and Beige 8th in a very enjoyable though restricted Summer 2021 BUSA at Spinnaker SC from 12-14 July 2021. By digging deep into reserves Cambridge fielded no less than 4 teams – 3 teams is the usual maximum when Qualifiers are held.

With the Long Vacation in full swing, entries were reduced by last minute cry-offs to 12 teams – though the usual suspects, Exeter and Southampton, were present. Congratulations to all the Cambridge sailors on a great performance – and a big ‘thank-you’ to Spinnaker, umpires, and officials for an excellent event.

Summer 2021 BUSA 2021 Details

Monday was a wet light-wind day, but good organisation resulted in some 30 races being sailed. Tuesday was fine and started with a good breeze, providing some excellent racing in the morning. Unfortunately the wind died after lunch, when Gold and Silver leagues had been formed, and racing was greatly curtailed.

Wednesday was fine with a reasonable though variable breeze and a full programme of races was sailed before moving to best of 3 semi finals and a best of 5 final. Exeter triumphed over Blue 3-1 in the final, having defeated Yellow 2-0 in their semi final; with Blue despatching Southampton 2-0 in their semi final. Yellow quietly saw Southampton off 2-1 to claim the Bronze in the semi final losers sail-off.

The three days of good sailing were then finished off by an invasion of the Dennis household by all the Cambridge teams for an excellent BBQ – a big ‘thank-you’ to the Dennis family! Winning teams also received some handsome gift vouchers from Rooster Sailing.

Summer BUSA 2021 Photos – Tuesday’s Racing

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The 2021 Varsity Match will not be going forward at Royal Harwich YC 28-30 June due to COVID-19 difficulties at Oxford. The fixture will now take place at Farmoor on 2 October – in parallel with the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society’s Generations Event.

2021 Cuppers Details

After two blank years (calms in 2019 and COVID-19 in 2020) a very successful 2021 Cuppers event for both sailors and windsurfers was run at Grafham on 22 June.  Trinity triumphed in windsurfing, with Fitzwilliam taking the Silver Fleet trophy and Hughes Hall (Chris Outlaw) finishing 3rd.  A joint Caius-Hughes Hall team were victorious in the sailing, with a joint Clare-Trinity team taking the Silver Fleet trophy.

Entries were reduced this year because, due to COVID-19, exams were still running and May Week Bumps were also running because of their changed format.  The windsurfers settled scores with just one long and exciting race of thrills and spills.  The team racers ran two complete round-robins before settling final scores by a best-of-three match race series after lunch, with active on-the-water umpiring much in evidence.

A brisk northerly wind provided just the right conditions for both sailing and windsurfing, though the sun was noticeably absent.  A video of the match racing finals is on Instagram

A big thank-you to Commodore Tom Kosteletos and past-Commodore Freddie Scott for organising such an excellent event – and also to others who assisted.  The BBQ, staffed by senior officers, proved as successful as ever.

Photographs of 2021 Cuppers

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Cambridge were victorious in an excelent BUSA Women’s Team Racing event, held at Rutland Water SC 12/13 June 2021. It was a glorious sunny weekend with a good wind on the Saturday that enabled a great many races to be sailed for the 8 teams competing.

Unfortunately the wind disappeared on Sunday, so the outcomes were decided on the Saturday round robin results. Cambridge lost out to Oxford Alumni on the tie break for Bronze in the overall RYA results, but were clear ahead of Edinburgh in the parallel BUSA event to take that trophy.

Congratulations to Cambridge Women on capturing the BUSA crown for the first time since 2013 – after a good many years of taking Silver and Bronze medals!

Team for 2021 BUSA Women’s Team Racing