Royal Hospital School team won national racing championship

Six young sailors from an Ipswich school have become national champions, following on from a victorious year of individual and team sailing competitions.

Sophia Dias, Grace Coleman Reaston-Brown, Georgie Stammers, Audrey Foley, Millie Lewis, and Nicole Stovell as team captain won the U19 Women's Team Racing National Championship.

The team from Royal Hospital School competed in two days of racing and secured first place against the University of Manchester, the University of East Anglia and University of Bath.

The group of six Ipswich students started the round-robin strong, winning their first race against the Warwick Mermaids, a team from the University of Warwick.

Sophia Dias, Grace Coleman Reaston-Brown, Georgie Stammers, Audrey Foley, Millie Lewis, and team captain Nicole Stovell (Image: Royal Hospital School)

On the second day, the team won 2-0 with Rutland Hydra, earning the trophy and ending the weekend winning all seven races on the second day.

These results gained the team a place in the silver league, in which the team won five out of five races, with a success rate of 100%.

RHS team had to overcome the challenging conditions, with high winds of 20-30 knots across the whole race.

Sailing team captain, Nicole Stovell from Year 13, said: “On behalf of my team, I would like to thank the school for giving us this opportunity to represent RHS and Mr Sibson for organising our participation and supporting us throughout the event.”

Ed Sibson, the director of sailing at Royal Hospital School, said that he is “delighted” with the fantastic achievement of the women’s team.

He added: “Their attitude to training all year has been exceptional, you can really see their drive and determination to succeed.

“This result represents a huge success, and I'm sure it will only motivate the team to train even harder and be more focused in the coming months.

“The team are a huge inspiration to our younger female sailors and I hope many of them will follow in the footsteps of this team and compete at this level in the future.”