Imperial College Sailing Club take on the BUCS South-Central Qualifiers
The IC Blue team make it through to the finals, in a closely-contested series of races on the choppy waters of Spinnaker Lake.
5.30am, 3rd February: The alarm went off, and twelve sleepy Imperial sailors crammed into a minibus for the journey to the BUCS South-Central regional qualifiers held at Spinnaker Lake, Southampton. Three hours later, 20 teams began the battle to determine who would progress through to the national finals. With only the top four teams qualifying straight through – and the teams in 5th-7th going to the next heat (playoffs) –, the competition was fierce, and the tense atmosphere was exacerbated by each team sizing up their opposition.
Armed with stage make up, the Imperial Blue and White teams daubed on their war paint in the respective colours (despite the judgement of the other universities present) and prepared to sail to victory. The wind conditions were initially shifty, with postponement in every region due to the lack of wind. However, poor weather did not deter the tenacious race committee, who managed to get through 54 races in the rain. Special mention to the teams in the Northern region who had to face regionals in the snow! Imperial Blue finished the day with five wins out of six, and Imperial White won one out of five.
“The tense atmosphere was exacerbated by teams sizing up the opposition”
True to the Imperial work ethic, the teams ventured out to spoons but followed it up by… settling down to work. Such was Cobi’s dedication to work that he cracked out his laptop to work during the day whilst waiting for the next races! Shoutout to the 1st year Biomedical Engineering lecturer who set a maths question hard enough to stump the Aero tutors…
8.30am: Races began swiftly in cut down sails, with the wind forecasted to build throughout the day. The determination of the race committee paid off as 106 races were completed, bringing the total up to 160. The wind was incredibly shifty but everyone gritted their teeth and grimly continued on. As the teams racked up multiple wins, they began the calculations to determine whether or not they would qualify. The tension began to build upon the discovery that everyone had lost at least two races.
Congratulations to IC White (Helms: Oliver Kidd, Cobi Allen, Toby Freeland; Crews: Ariane de Saint Victor, Michal Wojnowski, Marta Nunes de Abreu) who sailed extremely well in a difficult region, ending with seven wins from 16 and just missed out on a place for playoffs. Special commendation goes to Oliver who capsized (again), dropping his crew in the drink, but valiantly remained bone dry himself.
IC Blue (Helms: Joe Burgin, Gabriel Ing, Felix Crowther; Crews: Calvin Chan, Caroline Boule, Krystal Law) successfully won 14 out of 16 races and qualified in first place with the lowest overall points. Congratulations to the other teams that also qualified: Southampton Red, Southampton Green and Oxford Blue. We wish them all the best of luck at the finals, to be held in Glasgow over the Easter holidays. Huge thanks to race officers Ella Stoggall and Martin Smethers, their team of Solent-University volunteers and the umpires for running a great event. Thanks also goes to Southampton’s Peter Ballantine who graciously hosted our teams for the weekend.
