Report by Mike Bellew

NSSA Two Boat Team Racing, Farmoor 24^th March

After training through the winter with Tony Thresher, WOSC entered two young and inexperienced teams at the National Schools Sailing Association Team Racing competition at Farmoor, on a grey, damp day in March with very light winds.

On the very first race of the day, WOSC A easily defeated Claires Court, with the next race scheduled against the eventual winners, Magdalen College School. Rather bizarrely, MCS went off to attend to their problematic boat without the umpire's permission and the heat started before they were ready, with WOSC romping to victory. WOSC A continued with victories over Kimbolton, Cokethorpe and Oxford Sail Training with only the local experts at Oxford Team Racing managing to out-manoeuvre us and prevent a clean sweep.

WOSC B also started well with 1^st + 2^nd victories over Kimbolton and Worcestershire, but losing to Derbyshire, Watford and Oxford Team Racing. WOSC B's  final race against Cokethorpe began badly with turns for hitting the starting buoy and trailing 3^rd and 4^th, but all those hours of tactical training paid dividends as we came back to snatch victory on the finish line by the clubhouse, in front of the excited crowd.

Would 5 victories out of 6 be enough to get WOSC A through to the semi-final knock out with only one team having a 100% result? Unfortunately not – the tie breaker calculation based on average finishing positions placed us 6^th. However WOSC A were awarded the prize for the highest placed team with under 16s – WOSC gets free entry to represent the NSSA at the RYA / Twiname Team Racing competition in the autumn.

By my calculation the average age of our sailors was 14 in a competition for under 18s and the results they achieved is testament to the many hours of training and expert tuition provided by Tony Thresher. Thanks to Tony, the next generation of WOSC juniors are continuing the success he has overseen for many years – sadly he will be stepping down from the team racing role and a new volunteer is sought.

WOSC A

Joe Scarborough + Malachy Brown; Nicole Perris + Freya Halsall

WOSC B

Kieran Bowsher, James Ball, Chris Bellew, Lucy Cox