Please select your home edition
Edition
Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca 2025

Oxford Top Gun Invitational Trophy

by Tom Storey 27 Feb 2023 05:50 PST 25-26 February 2023

This weekend (25th & 26th February) saw Oxford University Sailing Club running the annual Top Gun Invitational Trophy. The top 8 university teams from across the UK and Ireland made their way to Farmoor Reservoir for a packed weekend of high quality team racing across 2 flights of Fireflys.

Saturday saw a prompt start at 10 am allowing for 53 races to be completed across the day in a fresh, but shifty 15 knots. Notable results came from UCD who managed to finish the day having lost only one of the 13 races they competed in. Some say this was due to their rather strange strategy of repeatedly shouting compliments to each other throughout the starting sequence, others say it was their ability to communicate in Irish allowing for full secrecy between teams. A speedy pack down allowed for all competitors to have ample time to get into their black tie for the Top Gun Dinner held at St Edmund's Hall.

Another prompt start on Sunday allowed the teams to get another 12 races in each before we ended the round robin to head into a best of 5 final between UCD and Cambridge. A shifty 12 knots made racing extremely tight and after 2 wins each we saw the final descend into a winner-takes-it-all final race. Incredibly good umpiring decisions saw almost all the boats in the final race spinning; however, UCD pulled through on the final beat and secured a win for an Irish team for the first time in Top Gun history.

A massive thanks must go out to the umpire team who not only delivered top quality umpiring, but were also massively helpful in explaining their decisions to the sailors after every race allowing for lessons to be learnt by all. Mentions must also go out to Keith at KSail who provided the scheduling and results system, and PRO Amy Goult who managed to churn out so many races that it seemed we were almost always racing. A final thank you must also go out to plainsailing.com, an award winning yacht and catamaran company, who've provided generous sponsorship to OUYC throughout the past year.

We hope all sailors had a great time and we look forward to seeing you all next year!

Full results can be found here.

Related Articles

Team Racing World Championship preview
Changing to Sonar keelboats and the two-on-two format, in New York A new format, a different type of boat and a 10-year gap are all conspiring to tear apart any attempt to build a form guide for the 2025 Team Racing World Championship, which is set for May 28 to June 1 at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court. Posted on 16 May
RTYC Cumberland Cup day 1
Home advantage for Royal Thames YC on opening day The Royal Thames Yacht Club team lead by Murray Hampshire and Arthur Henderson made the most of the tricky Northerly winds to lead, undefeated, at the end of day one of the Cumberland Cup. Posted on 16 May
RTYC Cumberland Cup preview
International teams will gather in London for top flight team racing Nine of the best international Team Racing Clubs have gathered in London for the biennial Cumberland Cup. Posted on 15 May
Victorian 2K Team Racing Championship overall
48 sailors from 5 Victorian clubs converged on Royal Geelong YC 48 sailors from 5 Victorian clubs came together for the inaugural 2K Team Racing Victorian Championship over the weekend of May 10th and 11th. Posted on 15 May
Applications open for the BA Cup Team
The British team will be selected from applications received by 1st June The British team will be selected from applications received by 1st June. The battle to decide the 6th Series of this prestigious keelboat team racing competition will be 23rd - 25th Oct 2025. Posted on 12 May
Team Race World Championship returns
In a month's time when the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court The past decade for team racing has featured the emergence of a new, spectator-friendly format and the continued spread of the discipline around the globe. Posted on 2 May
Team Racing at Waldringfield
The club recently acquired a good condition flight of Fireflys On Easter Sunday, Waldringfield Sailing Club held its inaugural Team Racing taster day on the beautiful River Deben. Posted on 29 Apr
2025 Exeter Excalibur Team Racing at Roadford Lake
Some of the UK's finest team racers gathered for a weekend of close, high-level competition The 2025 Exeter Excalibur brought a thrilling weekend of intense team racing to Roadford Lake on the 15th and 16th of March. Posted on 28 Apr
IOM Eastern District Team Event at Norwich
A fantastic day of competitive radio sailing The Eastern District Team Event held on 27th April 2025 at the Norwich Model Yacht Club (NMYC) proved to be a fantastic day of competitive radio sailing, with eighteen skippers from six clubs across the region battling it out in a lively series of races. Posted on 28 Apr
Boston Yacht Club hosts Jackson Cup this weekend
A total of eight teams will compete in the event Sailors from some of the most prestigious yacht clubs across the USA and the UK are converging on Marblehead this weekend as the Boston Yacht Club opens its racing season with the 26th annual Jackson Cup team race regatta. Posted on 24 Apr
RS Sailing 2021 - FOOTERAllen Dynamic 40 FooterPredictWind - Routing 728x90 BOTTOM