The Kings Sailing team competed a the KSSA Annual Regatta hosted by Downs Sailing Club at Deal on Saturday, with sunshine and a good forecast of increasing breeze throughout the day.

A team of 14 sailors raced in singlehanded and doublehanded dinghies against competitors from across the county, with a total of 60 boats entered across the two fleets; Rookie (first event) and Main fleet. With racers in both, King’s looked well placed to pick up some silverware this year and that proved to be the case.

Sailing in his first competition for King’s, Kevin secured first place in the Rookie fleet and teammate Yaolong took fifth place, with some excellent sailing throughout by both.

Racing in the Main fleet, further out to sea with stronger breeze and waves, the King’s doublehanded teams put in some notable performances to finish in the top half of the fleet. Iggy & Oscar finished 23rd, with Richard & Nathan just one place behind in 24th and Raf & Maryna 34th.

The singlehanders of Athena and Nicky had the opportunity to race in borrowed laser dinghies for the event and both enjoyed surfing down the waves at high speed trying to keep it upright, finishing 33^rd and 35^th respectively.

Strong competition in the Topper fleet meant for some great racing throughout the three races, with our sailors performing well. Both team captains picked up silverware with Lulu winning the trophy for First Girl (16th) and Daniel Dittrich (17th) overall First sailor in a borrowed boat. Dora finished 22nd and Edward a battling 40th overall.

With these fine performances, the King’s team came away with the ‘Best School’ trophy with captains Lulu and Daniel collecting on behalf of the team. A great event, held in near perfect sailing conditions, left our sailors very tired but with a real sense of achievement.