U of T Sailing Wins 2017 Keelboat National Championship!

Rough seas and big weather on Saturday

All smiles at the awards ceremony

This weekend the U of T Sailing team sent a team down to Oakville to compete in the Annual Keelboat Championships hosted by National One Design Sailing Academy. The event is held in small keelboats called Flying Tigers. 

After the training day was cancelled due to bad weather, the team headed out bright and early on Saturday morning for the first race of the day. There was great wind and big swells in the lake, ideal conditions for an exciting day of sailing! However, our boom vang broke, and we then encountered technical difficulties with our spinnaker, which caused us to miss the first race. After a bad start, the team had a great recovery, winning 5 of the four ensuing races and coming second in the other. What a day! 

Kites out on the downwind!

The second day was more difficult, with Dalhousie Sailing proving themselves to be admirable opponents and skilled sailors. After some nail-biting races, U of T managed to edge out Dal and won the event by 2 points, qualifying for the 2018 Student Yachting Worlds in France!  

Again, a huge thank you for National One Design Sailing Academy for hosting this event again, and to all the other university teams who came out to compete. We look forward to representing Canada at in France next year!