BUSA team racing began in record style, fitting in 128 races on the first day, despite racing being abandoned for half an hour in the late afternoon while a squall came through. Windy, changeable conditions made for exciting racing throughout the event.
In the mixed event, Cambridge, Nottingham and Oxford established strong starts by winning all the races in their leagues and progressing to the supergold league.
The ladies league was much closer, with every team losing at least one race.
Wednesday saw the mixed teams split into 4 leagues and the ladies into 2.
In the supergold league Cambridge lost their only race of the event to Nottingham, while Oxford struggled due to a missing helm. In the gold league, Southampton 1, Southampton 2 and Cambridge 2 sailed straight through to the quarter finals, leaving the rest to play off against those at the top of the silver league for the final 2 places.
The ladies gold league was close again, with Oxford, Bristol and Southampton emerging at the top, leaving Cambridge and Edinburgh, placed 4th and 5th, to play off with Southampton 2 and Durham for the last semi final place. Southampton 2 had a great sail in the play offs, recovering form from the first day to win all three races.
Strong winds on finals day made plenty of work for the bosons, as breakages became fairly frequent. In the mixed competition, the supergold teams pick their quarterfinal opposition and sail best of three. This led to Cambridge, Oxford and Nottingham seeing off Southampton 3, Cambridge 2 and Oxford 2 respectively, with the final match being won by Southampton 1 against Southampton 2, all won 2-0.
In the semi finals, again best of three, both Oxford and Cambridge sailed fast and tactically to beat Nottingham and Southampton respectively to secure an Oxbridge final.
In the ladies semi finals, Southampton 1 and Oxford managed to beat Bristol and Southampton 2, thus sending the two teams who had sailed the most consistently well throughout the competition to the final.
In the final Southampton 1 sailed very well and managed to defeat Oxford to win the BUSA trophy.
The mixed final, best of five races, began strongly by Cambridge with a solid victory. In most of the races both teams had fairly even starts, with Cambridge gaining the upper edge by carrying out flawless conversions to secure winning combinations. After some delays due to kit failure, Cambridge won three races in a row and thus the tournament.
Thanks go to the many people who put huge amounts of effort in to organise the event, none more so than our chief organiser Jo Lucas who has worked hard to make BUSA a great success.
Photos from the event can be found at www.fotoboat.com