The King’s team began the competition in a pool of 10 boats, competing to qualify for Gold or Silver Final Fleets on Sunday. With hardly any wind to begin with, the team started the race off at a disadvantage. Beginning with a first place in the first race, the team’s momentum quickly took a turn for the worse after sailing into a big hole of final downwind and ending up in 8th place. After receiving a penalty in the second race and placing 8th again, the Keelboat team struggled to gain that momentum back. This was not the results that the team was looking for and despite some great sailing following this loss, they could not bounce back. After placing 7th in the pool, they headed to the Silver Fleet competition to sail off for places 11th to 20th.
Sunday saw some small victories for the team after sailing with more consistent winds. The team pulled together to take out 11th place, or first place within the Silver Fleets race - just ahead of Whangarei Boys. The competition was much tougher this year and the losses from the pool races were too large to allow the team to advance to the Gold Fleet this year. Nonetheless, 11th place out of 20 boats remains a great achievement and a fantastic victory for the college.
