On Saturday, 24 sailors travelled to Sevenoaks in Kent to compete in the Hoad Shield.
Three teams were entered in the under 17 division and competed against 13 other teams from 6 different schools. After 8 races each, the Yellow team (Elise D, Jenny S, Phoebe P and Poppie U) ranked 7th with 5 wins, just one win away from making the semi-finals.
The Orange team (Ben W, Ava C, Kyan J and Bay O-T) ranked 2nd with 6 wins from 8 races and the Green team of Jacob R, Josh B, Konstantin M and James F topped the rankings, also with 6 wins. With the Green team beating the Orange team earlier in the day, the tie break went in their favour.
In the semi-finals, the Green team came up against the strong Sevenoaks Black team, sadly losing 2-0 whilst the Orange team came through their semi-final comfortably, beating Sevenoaks Grey 2-0.
The petit final went the way of the Green team, beating Sevenoaks Grey 2-1 to secure third place whilst the Orange team displayed some outstanding team racing to conclude their day by beating Sevenoaks Black 2-0 in the final to win the event. A fabulous result for a team that are working hard in training and are now starting to see the results.
Two teams were entered in the under 19 division and competed against 6 other teams from 5 different schools. RHS Falcons (Toby S, Devon L, Trystan H, Dany P, Hugo R and Grace G) sailed a flawless Stage 1 of the competition, winning all 14 of their races whilst the Blue team (Scarlett M, Izzy B, Sam T-H, Ottie S, Will M-G and Beth M) won 12 of their races, only losing to the Falcons.
These results threw up another pair of RHS v Sevenoaks semi finals. The Falcons cruised past Sevenoaks Red 2-0 whilst the Blue team just lost out to Sevenoaks White 2-1 following some incredibly tight team racing.
The Blue team went on to match the Green team's result in the petit final, beating Sevenoaks Red 2-1 to finish third, whilst the Falcons completed an unbeaten day to beat Sevenoaks White 2-0 in the final and finish the day with an 18-0 record.
This result marked a "three-peat" for RHS in the under 19 division, and the 6th time out of the last 7 that RHS have won the Hoad Shield. The Orange team claiming the under 17 title for RHS for the second time, making this the first time in the 40 year history of the event that the same school has won both under 17 and under 19 Hoad Shields!