University College Dublin takes second place at UK Sailing event last weekend.

Following their success on the Irish University Sailing circuit and as part of their training campaign for the Irish University Nationals, UCD Sailing Club sent two teams to England to compete in a British University team racing event, hosted by University of Reading and Burghfield Sailing Club.

Perfect sailing conditions on Saturday allowed racing to take place as planned, and round robins began for the 16 teams from Britain and Ireland present at the event. Both UCD teams sailed well on Saturday and came ashore with four wins out of five in their groups.

Although there were stronger winds on Sunday, racing continued as scheduled with the remaining round robin races being completed before the knock out stages commenced. UCD2 finished top of their group and faced UWE in the best of three semi-finals, where two wins over the English University secured the Irish team a place in the finals. Meanwhile Solent emerged victorious in their semi-final against Portsmouth 3, and went on to win the event when they had two more wins in the final against the UCD team.

UCDSC would like to thank all involved in the running of the event, especially Joanne Barker, Social Secretary of University of Reading sailing club, who allowed all 12 Irish sailors stay in her house while they were over competing at the event!

Final Results:

1^st place: Solent University

2^nd place :UCD2 - Timmy O’Laoire and Sharon Quigley, Michael Harrington and Aoife Conney, Aidan McLaverty and Jodie-Jane Tingle.

UCD1- Andrew O’Donoghue and Katie Curtin, Rory Murphy and Mary Lucey, Alistair Kissane and Ellen O’Donovan.