Update: 19.00 4/11/07
All fleets managed 3 races today in near perfect conditions at WPNSA. Southampton narrowly won the Team Prize for a Second year in a row.
Full results are on the downloads page and a few pictures are now in the gallery. Full report to come tomorrow.
Update: 16:56 03/11/07
All fleets heading ashore in near darkness. Results are going up on the Downloads page as they are published.
Update: 15:20 03/11/07
Well they’re racing at last in glorious sunshine and 8 knots of wind. Results to follow shortly.
Update: 12:38 03/11/07
Sailors arrived early this morning to find an average wind speed of 14 knots. As boats hit the water, the wind disappeared. Sailors are now floating around Portland Harbour awaiting further instruction from the Race Committee.
More than 250 student sailors will make the long trip down to Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy for the inaugural Fleet Racing Championship this weekend (3-4 November).
The British Universities Sports Association (BUSA Sport) Fleet Racing Championships (for the first National Championships of the University year) will give students the opportunity to race against each other individually in Lasers, Laser 2’s, Fireflies and a Handicap Class, as well as competing for the overall British Universities Sailing Associations’ Team Trophy (BUSA Sailing).
Defending Champions of the Handicap Fleet Ian Dobson and Katie Restall from Southampton University will again be hoping to win in their RS 200.
ISAF Team Racing World Under 21 Champions James Goss (Warwick), Oliver Mulcahy (Warwick), Ian Robertson (Bristol) Steven Videlo (Exeter), Elliott Parsons (Exeter) and Maria Stanley (UWE) will also be battling it out on the water in the Firefly and Handicap classes.
BUSA Sailing and BUSA Sport have been working together to try and make this a weekend to remember.
Will the University of Southampton dominate the event again this year and take the team prize for a second year in the row? Watch this space!
The latest news, information and the all-important results will be posted on the British Universities Sailing Association website [www.busa.co.uk].
– End –
BUSA is the governing body of university sport, running national competitions in 49 sports from Athletics to Windsurfing, and co-ordinating the Great Britain representative teams for the World University Games and World University Championships.
The BUSA Sporting programme draws on 1.4 million students with over 3500 teams engaged in BUSA competition on a typical sporting day. With over 600 leagues, it is the biggest such sporting programme in Europe. Fixtures and results from all BUSA competitions can be accessed at www.busa.org.uk.
Many university participants have gone on to achieve British and International success in their chosen sport, such as Paula Radcliffe, Monty Panesar, James Cracknell, Stephanie Cook, Nasser Hussain, Kate Howey, Audley Harrison, Beth Tweddle, James Gibson and Will Greenwood.
For further information please contact:
Hannah Marshall, Marketing & Communications Administrator
020 7633 5092 or Hannah@busa.org.uk
For more media information regarding BUSA sailing, please contact Jessica Mapplebeck, Secretary to the British Universities Sailing Association, Tel: 023 80 604 167 Mob: 07876 017 134 Fax: 023 80 604 290 Email: jessica.mapplebeck@rya.org.uk
Sailing is the most successful Olympic sport in this country and Great Britain is the world’s top Olympic sailing nation. The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is the national governing body for all forms of sailing, windsurfing, and powerboat racing. BUSA is the governing body for University Sailing in the UK. It is affiliated and supported by the RYA and has British Universities Sports Association recognition for its events.
BUSA currently has 45 active university sailing clubs participating in 5 different Championships (Fleet Racing, Inlands, Team Racing, Match Racing and Yachting). With over 1000 students competing in BUSA events each season.
A brief history: BUSA sailing was set up in the mid 1960’s. The organisation was run by a small group of students from various universities. At the beginning this Committee of students ran the annual University Team Racing Championships and organized and selected the team for the bi-annual American and European tours.
In 1991, when the whole University sport structure was changing, BUSA sailing remained independent from both the British University Sports Federation (BUSF) and University Athletic Union (UAU) and was provided with a full time secretary by the RYA funded by the Eric Twiname trust.
Student sailing was an important development area for the RYA RYA saw student sailing as an important development area and was beginning to support it more strongly and provide coaching in various areas. The 1993 Team Racing Championships were the first for which regional qualifiers were run. With a number of Polytechnics becoming Universities the number of entries to the Championships saw huge growth., so a series of four regional qualifiers were introduced prior to the finals.
During this period BUSA sailing continued to liaise with UAU and BUSF with an ever-improving relationship and by the time the two organisations merged to form the British University Sports Association, BUSA sailing was a well-recognised organisation with a long established constitution and Championship structure.
Further information can be found at www.busa.org.uk
-END-