IUSA Southern Intervarsities 2003
The 2003/2004 IUSA Team Racing Season kicked of in Waterford Harbour Sailing Club at the weekend
The premier event of the 2003/2004 IUSA team racing season kicked of in Waterford Harbour Sailing Club this weekend. Twenty one teams made their way to Dunmore East for two days of exciting racing. After Saturday DBS UCC and UCD had emerged as their group winners after some exciting racing in predominantly light wind.
On Sunday the impending gale came through and racing was brought very close to the shore, which meant a shifty and gusty racecourse, which would strongly challenge the quarterfinalists. Some fantastic racing was witnessed from the club balcony, which quickly became a grand stand with fellow competitors and locals cheering on the team racers. UCC, DBS, and two UCD teams emerged from the quarters to create an exciting climax to the event. DBS overcame UCC in a painfully close match, which took three races and UCD 2 gave their first team a bit of a scare in bringing it too a third and final race, but the firsts showed their class in the final race to get to the final.
The final saw UCD take first blood, in a shifty and extremely close race. DBS however returned in the second race winning in convincing style. The final race would determining the event and all around could feel the tension. UCD took first blood with a collision that left a DBS boat doing spins on the line, this left it up to two boats to slow down the race at the weather mark, so five boats arrived at the weather mark and a fantastic mark trap saw UCD emerge in a convincing 1,2,3 which DBS could not claw back,
All the competitors would like to kindly acknowledge the efforts of everyone involved in WIT and WHSC for a great event.
Paul Ruddy
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