Iona College take home the trophy
The Recently named Queensland Junior Teams Racing Champions Iona College, have gone back to back and defeated their Queensland School opponents in the 2011 Queensland Schools Teams Racing Championships hosted at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.
The exact same Iona team that took out the Junior Championships returned over the past weekend to beat ten different schools from around that state. In 3rd place was Brisbane Grammar School 1 who narrowly defeated Brisbane Boys College 1 in the final round. In 2nd was Moreton Bay College (MBC) 1 team who also took out 1st Girls overall. However none of these teams had the stamina after two days racing to defeat the young but skilful Iona sailors.
The regatta came down to a nail bitting final race as the fleet battled off the start line in around 8 – 10knots of breeze. The spectators were treated to a gripping final leg as Iona just managed to pip MBC on the line. Coach Belsham remarked after racing, “It was great, I don’t think anyone really expected us to win, we were the underdogs”.
again in the final race of the day against MBC to take home the trophy. “The boys were sailing right, sailing fast and really kept at it, they started well and had the boat speed over the rest of the fleet” said Belsham.
The top three teams from Queensland now have their sights set on the Australian Championships over in Perth later this year. Between now and then the teams will be training out of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, preparing to rivals from around the country.
Words and photo – Andrew Gough