The National Schools Sailing Association (NSSA) annual regatta took place at Draycote Water from the 24th to 28th July. CMYC, together with two sailors from Weir Water, entered a small team that was guided by Nick “Team Manager” W and Sarah “Camp Mum” F.

The overall Crawley Mariners team consisted of 8 sailors, over 6 boats split between three different fleets. Matthew B (Weir Wood) was our representative in the very competitive ILCA 6 fleet and secured the overall victory with a win on the penultimate race.

Our sole competitor within the Fast Handicap Fleet was Thomas W who casually mentioned on the Sunday before the regatta that he hadn’t sailed a boat since the previous NSSA regatta. Saying that, he is a keen windsurfer and knows what he is doing, and this showed when he partnered Matthew in the prestigious Mount Haas match racing event and secured a third place. We all thought that this probably the best result that the Club had ever achieved.

What a way to round off his last NSSA regatta. 

In the Slow Handicap Fleet, we had 6 competitors spread over 4 boats. They were: Anna E and Vanessa H (RS Feva XL); Edward Y from Weir Wood (Topper 4.2); Charlotte F and Esther A (RS Feva XL); and Thomas I (Comet).

The following trophies were won:

1st Place – ILCA 6 Fleet
3rd Place Mount Haas
3rd Place in the Overall Club Prize

There was also another informal competition that allowed the adults to show off their sailing skills. On Wednesday there was a Pursuit race where adults were allowed to compete with / and against the NSSA competitors. Nick sailed with Edward, in a RS Feva and narrowly beat Richard B to be the best placed CMYC finisher.

The NSSA regatta has been a fixture of my daughter’s diary for a number of years. The whole week includes up to 14 individual races, across seven different fleets together with a separate team, pursuit and individual solo races on Wednesday. The team camped at Draycote Water and evening activities were arranged for the competitors to unwind. For those of you that do not know about NSSA, or haven’t attended the annual regatta yet, I would encourage you
to ask our sailors for their views at forthcoming events (i.e. Saturday Clubs, Junior Helm etc). They should be easy to spot as they typically like to show off their personalised regatta hoodies.