Cambridge University Yacht Racing Team

Calling all Yacht Racers!

APPLY FOR THE 2020 UNIVERSITY TEAM

Fill out the expression of interest form here:
https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=RQSlSfq9eUut41R7TzmG6Z0IOfdE7ZZOo8ER3menp7RUN0JNR1I5OTgwRkhBT1dHNFVYRlM4MzZLQy4u
We look forward to hearing from you!

TERM SCHEDULE:

October 24, 7:30 pm: Introductory Session

November 2/3: Trials Weekend 1
or
November 9/10: Trials Weekend 2

Details to appear at https://www.cuyc.org.uk/programme/

Meet us at the CUYC Freshers' Squash:
October 15, 7pm -- Queens' College, Erasmus Room

So, how did BUSA go down? The BUSA Yachting Championships is the British University Sailing Association's annual national student yacht racing competition. It is held over 4 days, this year from Monday 15th to Thursday 18th April with 22 boats competing. The first three days feature the Qualifying series and the final day features the Championship Series and the Trophy Series. The top eight universities from the Qualifying series compete in the Championship Series, with the remaining 14 boats facing off in the Trophy Series.

The planned racing for the Qualifying Series varies from day to day, with Day 1 involving 3 shorter buoy racing courses, Day 2 involving 2 shorter buoy racing courses and 1 extended coastal race and Day 3 involving 1 short buoy race courses and a longer (~5 hour) coastal race.

Day 1 was very windy, blowing mid 20s and gusting up to 30, definitely a day for a reef on the main and we also made the decision to hold back on the spinnaker, which proved a reasonable call given the marginal gains it provided to those game enough to hoist and the myriad of problems some boats ended up facing. Unfortunately our best start at the line ended up as a general recall. Cambridge placed reasonably consistently for the day, 13th, 9th and 9th ending up ranking 10th by end of Day 1; 9th university and only 1 point behind 7th and 8th. The evening of Day 1 featured the main social event for the week, the 'black tie' dinner.

The conditions on Day 2 were dramatically different, with winds a lot lighter and sea state a lot calmer. Despite being fairly happy with our sailing in general, our results slipped in races 4 and 5, placing 14th and 12th. Race 6 was the extended coastal race, and well into the first set of upwind beats, Cambridge were comfortably up with the leaders in 4th-5th place. Unfortunately, a combination of bad luck with wind shifts and being tactically outperformed by several competitors and their superior knowledge of the Solent meant we ended up placing 16th. Overall the day's performance meant we slipped to 13th overall and 11th university.

The final day of qualifiers provided even more mixed conditions, with races initially delayed for ~3 hours due to lack of wind. Things were just getting started after lunchtime with Cambridge managing a much needed great start only for another general recall to be announced. All was underway for another start when fog set in and races delayed for another ~3 hours. All the delays meant the intended long coastal race of the day was not to be, and instead a single short buoy race would see out the day. Sailing in the race was generally ok, but we weren't able to improve on a poor start and we ended up with a 16, which was our discarded race, placing Cambridge at 14th at the end of the qualifying series.

The Trophy Cup competition on the fourth and final day constituted 3 standard round the buoy races in great sailing conditions and ended up being Cambridge's best day at BUSA, performing best out of all teams competing in the Trophy cup, placing 4th, 4th and finishing with a very much enjoyed 1st place on the final race. Bristol went into the day in a better position on points and deservedly won Gold in the Trophy Cup, however Cambridge were very pleased to take home the Silver medals and an overall 10th place at BUSA.

CUYC Racing would like to congratulate all BUSA competitors as well as acknowledge our Varsity rivals and friends at Oxford University Yacht Club. We also wish to offer a big thank you to all our supporters, particularly Cambridge University Yacht Club, the University of Cambridge Sport Centre and our collaborators and colleagues at CUCrC.

Cambridge crew: Chris Cantillo Garrett Bray Laurence Cochrane Anna Prescott Holly MacAskill Karen Louise Niels van Fraassen Freddie Scott

So, how did Varsity go down? Varsity takes place as part of the final Sunsail regatta race weekend before BUSA. The winner is the team which places highest on points in the regatta.

There were 7 races across the two days. The first day offered windy conditions, circa 20 knots and a sum of various things going wrong, part due to equipment, part not. By the end of the day of four races, we had come in front of Oxford in two races and behind in two, but were down to Oxford by a point due to relative places.

The night saw us raise a glass to a hard day's sailing with our competitors and friends in Oxford over a dinner out in Cowes.

Sunday saw three races in even windier conditions. Race 5 saw us regain the lead on points placing two spots higher than Oxford. Race 6 saw another switch in position with Oxford placing two spots higher than Cambridge bringing it all down to the last race. With many tense moments and lead switches, Cambridge gained a narrow lead around the final marks and managed to hold it for an extended final upwind beat.

What a week! We've just had a chance to take a breath since the end of 7 days of sailing in the Solent and we are well overdue for some updates!

The headlines! We won back Varsity from Oxford in as close a competition as it can get! We also had quite a respectable show at BUSA facing a wide range of conditions, ultimately winning the silver medal in the Trophy Series, and placing 10th overall.

The 2019 team was:
Chris Cantillo on Helm
Garrett Bray on Bow (VC Racing)
Anna Prescott on Navigation and tactics
Freddie Scott on Main
Laurence Cochrane on Pit
Holly MacAskill on Trim
Karen Louise on Trim
Niels van Fraassen on Mast

With big thanks to Jordan Billiald as team coach

More details/photos to follow!

Great weekend out of east coast race training on the Orwell and the Stour. We also got to join the Frostbite series at Haven Ports YC and managed to get the line honours!!

SEEKING 2018/19 CUYC RACING EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Thank you to all who visited us at the Fresher's and Sports Fairs this week. We are now seeking to ramp up on racing training and team selection.

We warmly welcome your interest and are keen to learn more about you! Anyone interested, whether new to CUYC or an old hand, please fill in the form in the link and keep an eye out for announcements regarding Michaelmas race training weekends!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeS2hkmPf0FPaCQakwXcJ03lcHA8WQl_i12riVMtSlc86lEzw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Also- don't forget to join us for the Welcome Squash, this Monday Oct 8th, 7pm Erasmus Room, Queens' College. Look forward to see you there

The Cambridge University team just returned from the second annual International Top Universities Regatta held in Qingdao, China and are pleased to announce that for the second year in a row, we return as champions!!! Across 4 days in China's sailing capital, 7 races were fought out between 12 Universities in a wide mix of sailing conditions.

The winning crew of Paris Thomas, Gates, Morley, Oliver Jagger and Garrett Bray represented a great joint effort across both CUCrC and CUYC.

Many thanks to organisers at Qingdao for such a wonderful event.

More photos to follow!

Hello racers!

We are seeking expressions of interest in forming a crew to compete in the second ever International Top University Regatta in Qingdao, China for August 10-15th, 2018.

We'll be racing 28ft keelboats and require 5 crew incl skipper. Majority of key expenses will be covered.

Last year Cambridge entered a team in the inaugural event and managed to come away global victors! It would be great to mount a strong / experienced crew to head back to defend the title (and have a lot of fun in the process!).

Contact [email protected] if you are interested, with details of your racing experience and any other questions you might have.

And we’re off! Make sure you follow ....

Three days until Yachting varsity and nationals.... we’re ready for the challenge, are you?
GDBO

Some belated photos from last weekend’s trails. Teams were entered into the RSYC Frostbite Series and enjoyed pretty dreamy conditions out in the Solent. The completion of trials marks the beginning of the Varsity training period which will culminate in Varisty and BUSA on March 24-29th. Stay tuned for more updates! GDBO

*RACE TRAINING*

CUYC still has 5 spaces available for the BKA inshore race training on 24-25th February. Highly recommended to anyone looking to get some professional advice and insight and improve their theoretical and practical racing knowledge! Any questions please don't hesitate to message the page, or email [email protected].
Places are first come first served.

** please note a minimum experience requirement of Day Skipper practical (or equivalent), or at least 500 racing miles are needed to partake in this event. For practical reasons, the basics of sailing cannot be explained on this course. **

For more information and sign up, please view here:

[RACING] Round the Cans training session - Events - Cambridge University Yacht Club This weekend has been organised by the Keelboat Academy aimed at refining 'round the cans' racing skills, and will be held on sunsail F40s in the solent. The exact interary is TBC by the academy, but it will likely consist of a mix of theory and racing. Its guaranteed to be hugely useful for anyone....