British Keelboat League bonanza at Rutland Sailing Club
by British Keelboat Sailing 21 Feb 06:58 AEDT
15-16 February 2025
British Keelboat League bonanza at Rutland © BKL / RSC
The latest round of the British Keelboat League 2025 saw eleven teams competing at Rutland Sailing Club over a weekend of brisk and brilliant close racing.
The BKL format saw competitors taking part in multiple fast and fun races, sailing the club's fleet of four RS21s along with a fifth generously loaned for the occasion by RS Sailing.
Hosted by Rutland SC over the weekend of 15-16 February 2025, an optional afternoon of sailing was provided on the Friday for teams to get up to speed in the keelboats.
Saturday then saw battle commence following a briefing by Event Director David Wilkins from Rutland SC and Chief Umpire Steve Watson. In around 6-10 knots of breeze, with cold and at times wet conditions, 15 races were completed on day one with teams rotating in and out of the boats.
David said a strong entry of teams - including previous BKL winners - saw a pattern soon developing with the top three teams of Burnham, Marconi and Solent Irish being consistently at the front in their races: "There were some exceptional displays of boat handling and teamwork displayed throughout and at the same time, the racing was conducted in a competitive but very fair way by all."
Social
Entry included a three-course Saturday meal and with good low-cost bunk accommodation and mobile home parking available at the club, it proved to be an immensely sociable and enjoyable evening which carried on until late into the evening.
Rutland SC's caterers produced a fantastic meal despite part of their area being shut for refurbishment and there were extra celebrations for the 21st birthday of Kate Robertson, one of the university organisers for the event.
Competitors were reminded that the first start on Sunday was scheduled for 9.30am but the Saturday night took its toll on some sailors, who needed to be woken up from their club bunk accommodation to get out onto the water on time!
Although the day dawned with some rain initially, this soon stopped and with sunshine - albeit still very cold - and about 8-10 knots of breeze, the racing on Sunday was again intense.
Solent Irish reached the top spot and Burnham pulled up to second, with Marconi third and Solent Red coming into the mix in fourth, while the mid-fleet battle continued with some close finishes.
First of these was Portsmouth University and members of Swarkstone SC in fifth, just ahead of a young team from Derbyshire Youth Sailing, who sailed keelboats for the first time only three weeks ago, in a very creditable 6th place - the 'Older Derby' group just pipping the 'Derby Youth' group. Teams also included the University of Plymouth YC, Scaling Dam SC and Spinnaker SC.
The race team hit its target of 18 races on Sunday, adding up to 33 in total over the two days, which meant that ALL teams sailed 15 races each over the weekend.
Heading towards the final reckoning, Solent Irish from Solent University were just at the top of the leader board but as Marconi SC's Mia Morgan explained, all could still change heading into the final stages of the event: "It was an intense moment between us and Burnham getting on to the RIBs before the last three races when we were 0.02 average points apart!"
With the top three teams in the overall results at Rutland having finished in the top six at the BKL finals last year, the standard was incredibly high. Results were based on average points per race and the winners declared for University, Club and Overall, with the overall winners receiving a newly presented Rutland BKL trophy.
Top four
1st overall & 1st University: Solent Irish - Solent University Sailing - Tiarnan Brown, Eddie Latham, Matt Taylor, Charlotte Wakefield
2nd overall & 1st Club: Burnham SC - Flynn Davies, Chay Taylor, Cameron Harris, Niamh Davies
3rd overall & 2nd Club: Marconi SC - Daniel Nickalls, Tiegan Crick, David Nickalls, Mia Morgan
4th & 2nd University: Solent Red - Solent University Sailing - Albert Barber, Emily Shears, Eve Kennedy, James Alexander
Matt Taylor from the winning team, Commodore of Solent Uni Sailing, said: "We want to say a big thanks to Rutland SC for hosting a great event, it was awesome to mix it up this year with some tough competition from some of the sailing clubs alongside the uni teams.
"For us going into the weekend with a slightly different team to last year we knew we had to just keep it simple and keep the consistency throughout. Every point matters in this format so we were glad to be able to keep performing during the long days and come away with the university win for the second year running! It's definitely a standout event in the student yachting calendar for sure."
Overall results summary for British Keelboat League at Rutland 2025.
James Oxenham of the University Sailing League (USL), who was one of the event organisers and kindly brought up the fifth RS21 from Hamble, commented: "Rutland yet again put on an excellent over-subscribed joint BKL and USL event with the quality of sailing really pushing the university teams. One made it out on top - Solent - with the top BKL teams close behind. Looking forward to more. Hopefully it'll be warmer next round!"
Flynn Davies from Burnham SC, second overall and first Club, added: "I just want to say thank you on behalf of all the Burnham team to David Wilkins and the rest of the Rutland team for hosting a great event. The club's hospitality was second to none and race management getting through the full schedule was really impressive."
BKL 2025 Coordinator Peter Ward concluded: "Watching the results posted live online throughout the weekend, it was clear that the competition was close. It was fantastic to have so many teams taking part and it was especially pleasing to welcome Derbyshire Youth Sailing to the BKL. It just goes to prove that BKL #rockupandrace events are suitable for all racing sailors from any discipline."
Next up
The BKL welcomes entries from teams representing their club, class association, school, university or group of friends, with the top three from each event receiving an invite to the BKL grand final in Cowes at the end of the season, from where they could win a place to compete in the European SAILING Champions League 2026.
Could it be your club or university competing at the BKL finals or in Europe next year?
The BKL looks forward to returning to Rutland SC in July. In the meantime, teams are invited to enter now for two upcoming BKL events at the Royal Southern YC: #rockupandrace J70s on The Solent for the Boysterous Cup (including University Sailing League), 22-23 March 2025, and the Women's BKL as part of the Women's Open Keelboat Championship, 1 May-31 June 2025.
Find out more and enter at British Keelboat League.