Boase Cohen and Collins Inter School Sailing Festival Overall
by Naomi Walgren 11 Mar 2018 03:14 PDT
10-11 March 2018
Boase Cohen and Collins Inter School Sailing Festival © Guy Nowell
It doesn't get much better than this: two days of perfect sunny conditions on the race course, with a light easterly breeze on Saturday which increased a little on Sunday with gusts to 12kts.
24 teams representing 18 educational establishments from across Hong Kong and Macau battled it out over the weekend at the 16th annual Boase Cohen & Collins Inter-School Sailing Festival. Racing took place in Deep Water Bay off the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Middle Island clubhouse.
Teams of three boats per school competed in two divisions, with the older sailors in the Feva and younger sailors in the Pico Division. 126 competitive short races were sailed over the weekend in the team racing format. In team racing it's not about who finishes first but having your points add up to the lowest score, so if one teammate is coming last it's better to help them out rather than finishing first. (A low point scoring system is used to determine the results the boat that finishes 1st earns 1 point, a boat that finishes 2nd earns two points, and so on – with the winning team decided by adding together the points of all the boats in each team.)
Saturday saw all teams racing against each other in a round robin format. In the Pico division Tai Po Regional Squad and the ISF Academy took wins in all their races, pushing them into the Gold fleet going into the final day of racing.
Due to a breakage in the Feva Division only 16 races were sailed on Saturday; the remaining races were sailed this morning to decide the Gold and Silver fleets. Island School maintained their winning streak putting them in the Gold fleet.
With gusts funneling down the gap between Middle Island and Hong Kong Island and diverging into Deep Water Bay, the competitors had to be on their toes to contend with the shifty conditions. There was some tight racing with many tackling battles resulting in a few penalties.
In the end in the Feva Gold Division the ISF Academy, West Island School and French International School were tied with 4 wins each, requiring a countback with French International School victorious over West Island School in second and ISF Academy in third.
In the Pico Gold Division the Jockey Club Ti-I College took the win followed by the ISF Academy in second and Hong Kong Schools Sailing Association in third.
In preparation for the competition, many of the schools competing participated in a number of RHKYC sailing programmes throughout the year to get ready for the event.
The event is also designated a Clean Regatta by the Sailors for the Sea Organisation; a non-profit organisation that educates and empowers boaters to protect and restore our oceans and coastal waters.
Provisional results