The racing was tight, competitive, exciting and exhilarating. Memorable moments were watching the sea of brightly coloured spinnakers cascading down to the leeward mark followed by organized chaos to get around the mark before roaring off upwind again. The sailors gave their boat handling a real workout, with tweaks and improvements made in every race. Josh and Dylan said that race officer’s decision to use the Black Flag – automatic disqualification if over the line with minute to go - was a harsh but fair punishment and a good learning experience.
Sophie Pitman, teacher and houseparent at Westbourne House, said, “The aim of participating this year was to gain competitive experience in a big fleet and improve teamwork and boat handling skills. We are certainly proud of our fine fleet of sailors and look forward to next year.” Amber N said how much she improved with her spinnaker hoists and Rosie C-B said how much she enjoyed the competitive racing. After a busy day on the water on Monday, the sailors were lucky enough to attend a debrief given by Olympic silver medalist Ian Walker, who had been out on the water watching the racing.
With two days under their belts, our Year 8 sailors departed for Dartmoor and reunite with their peers on their final Westbourne Award residential trip. Some mixed emotions when they left as racing was going well for all three crews but further fun and exciting challenges awaited them in the West Country.
The second day of racing required a good deal of patience as numerous postponements and general recalls tested the young sailors. They were eventually rewarded with great wind just off East Head, close and exciting racing and there were beaming smiles all round after the final finishing toot. Elated sailors sailed back home with a good deal of water related hilarity en route. At one point Josh B was heading for home single handedly controlling all three sails.
This year, Westbourne House had one of the greatest number of entries. The sailors can all be proud of their performance, be it for the first time racing competitively or striving hard to maintain those strong finishing positions. Exhausted, sun kissed, proud, inspired, are all words to describe the Westbourne House sailors after they tallied off for the final time…until next year!
