Royal Hospital School Falcons soar to victory in Schools Keelboat Team Racing Championship 2025
by Jack Fenwick 1 Dec 07:44 PST
29 November 2025
Schools Keelboat Team Racing Championship © Richard Sawyer
Seven teams from six schools gathered at the Royal Thames base at Queen Mary Sailing Club on a miserable winter morning this past Saturday 29th November for the second Schools Keelboat Team Racing Championship.
With strong winds in the forecast as a frontal system was due to pass overhead, the Race Officer, Keith Sammons, wisely kept the sailors onshore but with boats fully rigged and ready to go until the conditions improved. As predicted, just around lunchtime the rain stopped and the racing began.
The battle was on from the start and in the very first race an incredibly tight mark three saw boats rafted together and penalties dolled out a plenty and so the tone was set for some great team racing.
After a late start to the day, the Race team threw in race after race in the puffy conditions that challenged boat handling as much as it did team racing skills. As the sun disappeared over the horizon, 16 races were in the bag and some excited sailors returned to the shore to debrief the day with their teachers and prepare the game plan for day two.
In contrast to the previous day, Sunday was a glorious autumnal affair with blue skies and 8-12 knots of wind greeting the sailors as they arrived. First race of the day would see Ryde School, counting just one loss from the previous day, face off against the Royal Hospital School Falcons who were undefeated. A valiant effort from the Ryde team who crossed the line in first but the Falcons had controlled their teammate and took the race win with second and third.
The racing continued at a fast pace and the improvement shown by all the teams was staggering. Long discussions on shore between the sailors could be heard discussing the best way to get the kite to fill first or how to pass back their opponents at the various marks. After 21 races the first round was complete and RHS Falcons were undefeated with Ryde, Rutland and RHS Blue all fighting hard for the remaining podium places.
Rutland avenged their first-round defeat to Ryde in the second round with a 1-3 win and their challenge for second looked strong. With the pressure mounting on Ryde, they rose to the challenge in race 38 taking the only win against the RHS Falcons with a convincing 1-2. Rutland carried on their winning form in their closing races beating RHS Blue, Winchester and Clifton and finished the double round robin tied on win points with Ryde. After some quick checking off the rule book, it was Ryde who took second place behind the RHS Falcons with an almost perfect scoreline and Rutland in third.
After a quick pack up in the fading light, the sailors gathered in the clubhouse to thank the volunteers who had made it happen and cheer on their fellow sailors collecting their prizes.
After the prize-giving, Falcons Captain, Toby Smith said "This has been such a great event and we want to thank all of the race officers, mark layers, transfer drivers, umpires and the bosun for putting on such a great event. The racing has been amazing so thanks to all the other teams for being here too."
British Schools Dinghy Racing Association Commodore, Ed Sibson said " We are very grateful for the support Royal Thames Yacht Club give us in helping to develop access to keelboat racing for our sailors. We do a lot of dinghy team racing so giving the sailors the chance to team race hard, in keelboats, with kites, is a pretty unique experience and one all of the sailors thoroughly enjoy and take a lot away from. I am sure we will see even more schools here next year"
The Royal Thames echoes the thanks to all of the volunteers who came together in chilly conditions to lay on some great racing and to KSail who, as always, sorted the scheduling and results.
Full details of upcoming team racing events including the usually oversubscribed Hot Rum Series.