WIS Place 4th Overall at Boase Cohen & Collins Inter-School Sailing Festival 2016

West Island School entered 2 teams at the Boase Cohen & Collins Inter-School Sailing Festival 2016. The teams were split into Division A, sailing Feva dinghies and Division B, sailing Picos. The weather forecast for the two day event called for cold, windy weather at the beginning of the event with the wind dying down throughout the regatta. The race course was set just off the beach at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, Middle Island Club house in very gusty and shifty conditions, providing a great spectacle for those watching on the shore. Both teams donned wetsuits, hats and gloves in an attempt to stay warm on the water and put their training to the test. Both teams started strong with wins over GSIS and Renaissance College in the Feva division and Chinese International and South Island School in the Pico division. As the day progressed, the WIS team faced some of the more experienced teams, and despite fighting hard and sailing well, they were caught out by some unlucky wind shifts. The Feva team finished the day in 3rd place in their flight, whilst the Picos were joint first with Island School and Hong Kong Sea School.

Day 2 started with a strong, gusty breeze with the forecast suggesting the wind would die off throughout the day. WIS Feva team’s first race against a top ranked KGV team including some of Hong Kong’s top sailors. Having lost to them in an earlier race WIS were keen to seek revenge and after a slow start the WIS team fought their way back into a winning combination. However, as the second place boat was about to cross the finish line, which would have secured a solid win for WIS, their boat broke, resulting in the crew falling overboard costing them their second place and the race win. Once ashore, the sailors approached the umpire team asking for their result to be reinstated as the failure was no fault of their own and after much deliberation the jury found in favour of WIS giving them the win and ultimately costing KGV the regatta. In the Pico Division, WIS had fought their way into the semifinals to race against French International School for 3rd/4th place. As the teams were preparing for their start, the rain set in, the wind dropped off and the sailors were left becalmed forcing the race committee to cancel the rest of the day’s racing. This left officials with a conundrum as no winner was decided on the water.

In this situation, the winner is decided by counting the total number of points accumulated throughout the event but even this could not decide who came out on top as all numbers were equal. According to the rules of sailing in this situation the winner is decided by a game of chance, which unfortunately went the way of the FIS team – a bitter blow to the team who fought hard all weekend and sailed an exceptional regatta.

At the end of the event both teams secured a credible 4th place overall in both divisions – beating some much more established teams and showing true potential for this young squad.

Throughout the event, many volunteers and race officials noted that WIS sailors showed true sportsmanship – they were gracious in victory and defeat as well as acting in a professional manner when faced with umpire decisions, a credit to the school!

Having made much improvement since the last event the sailors are keen to come back again next year to better their result and they are already planning their next event.

Team list

Feva
Scarlett Lorin (Team Captain)
Robert Lacy
Lucy Ross
Dylan Richards
Lexi Gili
Karrie Clark
Madeleine Walker

Pico
Adam Pheasant (Pico Captain)
Lukas Krug
Thibault Minne
Lewis Clark
Callum Henderson
Eamonn Lacy

Big thank you to Mr Houghton for his support and encouragement to the teams.