St Ignatius crowned RBC schools sailing champions

(CISC): The annual RBC Inter Primary Schools Sailing Championships has always been a hotly contested regatta and this year’s was no different. On Friday 25th November 2011, 36 sailors representing six schools (Red Bay, Savannah, Cayman Prep, St. Ignatius and Cayman International School) converged on the North Sound to battle for the rights to be crowned 2011 National School Sailing Champions. St. Ignatius dominated the championship fleet with seven first place finishes in as many races.

“RBC was pleased to again sponsor this year’s regatta. We extend congratulations to the teams that competed with such passion and to the organizers for an excellent event,” said Jason Waters, Area Vice President, Cayman Islands for RBC Royal Bank.

The thirty six sailors were divided into two fleets, championship and green. The more experienced sailors raced around a triangular course and the beginner racers sailed a reaching course (sailing across the wind). The weather conditions were challenging with 18 knots of wind and it was a credit to all the sailors that they coped so well with the conditions.

St. Ignatius domination didn’t mean that it was all over for the other schools, because the winner was going to be determined by the team with the lowest combined (championship & green fleet) score.

The green fleet was the most hotly contested group, with just a few points separating the six teams. Cayman Prep (one of last year’s joint winners) started out with three first place finishes but the other teams were not prepared to let them run away with the lead. The following five races saw Savannah (last year’s other joint winner), St. Ignatius and CIS all take line honours. Cayman Prep just managed to dig deep in the eighth and final race and win the Green Fleet event.

After the scores were combined, it was St. Ignatius who were crowned 2011 sailing champs, followed closely by Cayman Prep. CIS and Savannah were tied on points for third and Red Bay and Prospect were tied on points for fifth place. Andrew Moon, Club Commodore and Race Officer on the day, handed out the RBC trophy on behalf of Royal Bank.

The sailing coaches were very impressed with the turn out and level of sailing skill the sailors displayed in the windy conditions. Special mention goes out to newcomers CIS, who had the two youngest sailors (ages 6 & 7) in the competition and although they were by far the lightest team still managed to finish third. Coach Raph said, “Next year we are hoping that George Town, North Side and East End primary schools will be competing in the championship.”

The National Sailing Centre would like to say a big thank you to our sponsors RBC Royal Bank for their continued support of this regatta.