On the 25th and 26th of November Cambridge Blue and Cambridge Purple travelled to Oxford Sailing Club to compete in the 2023 Oxford Magnum. The wind on the first day was a light but consistent 4-8 knots, and sunny conditions.
Blue’s weekend got off to a positive start, with a convincing 1,2,4 win over Bristol Red. Next, a good start against RTYC white was squandered through poor first beat decision making. This was followed by a missed opportunity on the top reach, failing to convert the 2,4,6 into anything more stable. Finally Gordon was unable to make anything happen on the downwind, resulting in a RTYC 1,2. Blue continued at a .500 winning ratio, beating Southampton red and a tough loss to Exeter blue. The day went considerably downhill with a further 4 race slide to end the day at 2/8. Overall a very tough and disappointing weekend for Blue leaving a lot to work on. Starting coordination and first beat decision making being the main points.
Cambridge Purple provided the following assessment of their event: “Purple thoroughly enjoyed their day sailing against some very good opposition, only winning one less race than Blue.”
On day two we all arrived at Farmoor and waited for wind that never arrived. Overall both teams had a good day 1 and left the 2023 Oxford Magnum with many learning points.
The teams were:
Blue: Robbie McDonald (Helm) and Lucius Bligh (Crew, VC Team Racing and Captain), Tim Hire (Helm) and Hannah Cox (Crew), Gordon Cogan-Sivarajan (Helm) and Lizzie Lindsell (Crew)
Purple: Magnus Handley (Helm, Captain) and Lisanne Blok (Crew), Charlie Merryweather (Helm) and Jenny Jiang (Crew), Ellen Morley (Helm) and Sam Dernie (Crew)