Saints helps Exeter to second place

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Local sailor Jason Saints played an integral role in University of Exeter’s podium display at last weekend’s UK University Fleet Racing National Championships in Plymouth.

Saints, who competed with Olympian Jesse Kirkland, brother Jordan and skipper Lance Fraser in this year’s Argo Group Gold Cup, helped his alma mater to a second place showing at the two-day regatta.

That University of Exeter managed a podium display owed much to Saints’ strong showing with team mate Lucy Goff in the double-handed Frefly class where the pair finished second in a fleet boasting more than 100 sailors.

Day one of the regatta saw two races held in the Firefly and Laser classes before winds peaked at 30 knots and a massive squall wiped out half of the fleet.

The final day of competition saw one race abandoned in the Firelies and Laser due to light winds. However, the winds eventually filled in and shifted 180 degrees to enable race officials to complete what proved to be the final race of the regatta for the Fireflies and Lasers.

Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) will host this weekend’s Digicel 2012 Bermuda Optimist Open & National Championship and Bermuda Open and National Green Fleet Clinic.

The 15 races series will be staged in the Great Sound.

Registration for the championship and Green Fleet Clinic, to be conducted by coach Tom Coleman, will be held tomorrow at the RBYC between the hours of 4pm and 6pm. There will also be a late registration on Saturday at 7:30am.

Among those expected to be thick in contention during the upcoming regatta are the likes of Benn Smith, Matilda Nicholls, Campbell Patton and Chase Cooper.

Cooper is fresh off a solid showing at 2012 IODA North American Championships in Mexico, where he placed tenth out of a field of 149 sailors, to earn the Island’s its best showing at the regatta in three-years.

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