Oxford close to ruling waves
AFTER months of organisation and hard work the OUYC BUSA 1999 committee, chaired by Tim Cooke, held the biggest University Sailing event of the year, at Farmoor reservoir in Oxford, helped by the generous sponsorship of Deloitte and Touche and Thames Water.
As the elite of British University Sailing gathered, it was clear it was now or never for the Oxford men. Mixed results in the warm up to BUSA had seen them near the top of most of the big events of the season, however after a good training period and on their own water in their own boats, the pressure was on to perform. And perform they did. Qualifying for the knockout stages was accomplished with ease, they then beat Bristol in the Quarter-finals and met a strong Portmouth team in the Semis, yet Oxford dispatched them comfortably.
London University provided the opposition in the Final, having seen off Exeter impressively in their Semi-final. The first race went badly for Oxford and is best forgotten. The second race was a different matter though and a saw a brilliant fighting performance from Oxford; sailing descibed by Race Officer Chris Atkins as "vintage team racing". Oxford rounded the last mark in a losing second, third, sixth position. Instinctively Oxford spit the pairs up the last beat and gain a winning two, three, five combination - for a moment it seemed a win was on. Within feet of the finishing line though, London in the form of Sam Baron-Fox made their move forcing one of the Oxford boats the wrong side of the finish line and gained London a first, fourth, fifth finish to take the championship. It had been a strong performance by Oxford though and one which put Oxford Sailing to the forefront of University team racing. Moreover Christian Hamilton, the men's captain was elected as BUSA men's captain and Nicole Johnson won a place on the BUSA team touring America this summer.
The Oxford men's II were one of only three second teams to qualify for the event but were not content with this they put in some excellent sailing to win five of their ten league matches including victories over Imperial and Edinburgh. This meant that they finished fifth in their league, just missing qualification and were the highest placed second team.
The Ladies' team, despite the weather having hampered their training, were expecting great things after good results at London and in the BUSA qualifier. Unfortunately the first day started badly due to a lack of wind which meant hours of sitting around restlessly. However the wind eventually filled in and racing began. Due to the significantly reduced time span of the event , the twelve ladies' teams were divided into two mini leagues. The first race saw the ladies' team draw against Birmingham, who having beaten Cambridge, last year champions, in the qualifier, posed a considerable threat. However Oxford took out their key helm at the start and sailed to a comfortable victory. With increased wind strengths and efficiently-run racing it was decided that there was sufficient time for the all the ladies' teams to sail each other and Oxford had easy victories over Aberdeen, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle and Southampton II and so it soon became clear that the contest was between five teams, Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Portsmouth. Having lost to Southampton and Cambridge early on, they had a well-deserved vistory over favorites Bristol, and so the last race against Portmouth would decide who qualified and in what order, for the Semi-finals.
Tired by the days racing yet buoyed by the victory against Bristol, Oxford went out in fighting spirits. Aggressive pre-start tactics were evident immediately and inch perfect manouevres by Josie Gibson and Jemima Hardman, and Clare Farrell and Sally Copp (captain) meant that Rachel Morrison and Molly Hitchcock had a perfect start and began to stretch out a considerable lead, leaving Oxford in a dominat positon. Although Portsmouth were not beaten Josie Gibson forced the most dangerous Portmouth helm to infringe, hence incurring a penalty and ensuring Oxford's victory and qualification in second place behind Southampton.
The Semi-final was the best of three races and although they sailed in Bristol boats, Oxford felt this could be overcome. In the first race Oxford did not start well with Bristol dominating pre-start manoueves, thus ensuring they were first and second over the line, a result from which Oxford were unable to recover. The second race was less one-sided but carnage at the first mark left Josie Gibson with a penalty and Bristol with an unassailable lead.
Hence Oxford collected equal third place with the Tabs, and Bristol went on to win the event. This result was deserved if somewhat surprising considering the relative lack of experience within the team. It all looks very promising for the Varsity match at the end of June.