Secondary Schools Keelboat Nationals: Kings up their game to get the win
by Andrew Delves - RNZYS 7 Mar 2020 22:58 PDT
Kings College - Harken National Secondary Schools Keelboat Championships - Waitemata Harbour - 2020 © Andrew Delves
The Kings College team of Hamish McLaren, Oscar Little, Sam Scott and Walter Coop have stormed home on the final day of the 2020 HARKEN National Secondary Schools Keelboat Championship to win in dominant fashion.
With four gold fleet finals races sailed today, Kings managed to win three of them and finish second in the other to easily claim the national title.
The boys from Kings College in Auckland stunned the other teams today and sailed like professionals around the course, limiting mistakes, starting well, and sailing fast around the track. The surprising thing was, the team only just slipped into the final eight after finishing fourth after their qualifying pool A races on Friday. However, they obviously learnt something on that first day because they completely blitzed the fleet from the get-go today and never looked back.
Skipper Hamish McLaren was thrilled to get the win –
“We were nice and relaxed out there today, full credit to the boys who worked really hard, we just stayed super calm and sailed really well as a team. It feels cool to be national champions, we couldn’t be happier. A massive thank you to everyone at Kings who have helped us get here, to HARKEN, and to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron for putting on such an awesome event.”
As an extra bonus for winning, McLaren and his team now gain automatic entry into the Yachting Developments New Zealand Match Racing Championship later this year at the RNZYS.
Finishing behind them in second place was the Westlake Boys High School Team 2 who finished 10 points adrift on 14 points, followed closely by Auckland Grammar School who had 16 points.
St Kentigern College were fourth (17 points), followed by Glendowie College (17 points), Rosmini College (24 points), the all-girls team from Baradene College (24 points), and Rongotai College (27 Points). Full results below.
Images from all three days and a Finals Day regatta video on the RNZYS Facebook Page HERE
2020 HARKEN National Secondary Schools Keelboat Championships – Final Results
Gold Fleet
1st Kings College (4 points)
2nd Westlake Boys High School Team 2 (14 points)
3rd Auckland Grammar School (16 points)
4th St Kentigern College (17 points)
5th Glendowie College (17 points)
6th Rosmini College (24 points)
7th Baradene College (24 points)
8th Rongotai College (27 points)
Silver Fleet
1st Westlake Boys High School Team 1 (13 points)
2nd Waimea College (14 points)
3rd Takapuna Grammar Gold (15 points)
4th Takapuna Grammar Blue (15 points)
5th South Island Combined Team 2 (21 points)
6th South Island Combined Team 1 (21 points)
7th Kerikeri High School (22 points)