Irish Win at the British Universities Team Racing Varsities.
University College Dublin has made history by winning the British Intervarsities Team Racing Championship, the first Irish team to do so since 1970. This coupled with the team's recent triumph off being the first Irish team to claim victory in the renowned Oxford Top Gun Invitational Regatta.
As is custom the leading Irish University Team is invited to compete at the BUSA Finals. This event took place at Graftam Waters from the 12-14th of April and was hosted by Cambridge University. Having won most of their events throughout the college year and with their recent win at the Oxford Top Gun Invitational, the UCD first’s were this year’s team sent off to take on the challenge.
The event started with Swiss league (a rank adjusted round robin) qualifiers on the first two days. UCD won 12 from 14 of their races, qualifying them in 2nd place for the finals. This was a huge improvement for the team having narrowly missed quarter finals the previous year.
The final day of competition brought conditions of 20+ knots, so reefed sails were required. Sailing was kept close to land where the wind varied from 10-25 knots making for tricky sailing, having to flick from team racing to fleet racing. But this didn’t stop UCD as they progressed through to the finals beating Bristol and Southampton in quarter and semi-finals.
They now faced their host club Cambridge University, on home waters in a “first to three wins” final, this match up being a repeat of the Top Gun final. Their third race saw Cambridge go 2-1 up as UCD struggled with Penalties, OCS's and a Capsize. But, through their strength as a team UCD were able to win the next two races back-to-back, despite the incredibly difficult conditions, to become the first Irish team to win BUSA since Trinity in 1970.
Team Member Liam Glynn says that “all our practice really paid off, knowing precisely our roles despite best efforts from a brilliant Cambridge team. It is an amazing feeling to come home with this win”
Massive congrats to all of the team - Liam Glynn, Triona Hinkson, Jack Fahy (Capt), Kathy Kelly, Tom Higgins and Cian Lynch.