Published on: 27 July 2016




Christ Church Grammar School upheld a long standing reputation as a competitive team racing school, when they came from behind to snatch third place at the 2016 Australian Secondary Schools Team Sailing Championships. The event was held over four days on the picturesque estuary waters of Goolwa, in South Australia from 12 to 16 July. The event attracted 24 teams from around the country.

Days one to three saw the Christ Church teams finish with 6:3, 6:4 and 3:4 win/loss ratios, leaving the team in eighth place along with four other teams. On the final day of racing the team had a win and a loss, just enough to secure seventh place and a shot at the finals.

Christ Church drew the second placed NSW team of Scots College in the quarter finals, and in a show of defiance, obliterated the opposition with two very convincing wins in a best of three.

The team took on the South Australian State Champions, Westminster, in the second semi final, with the winner to go through to the final. Unfortunately, Christ Church’s good form evaporated in the dying breeze, and the team went down in two races.

The team had one more chance, racing off against the Tasmanian State Champions, Friends White, in a best of three preliminary. Sadly, it was not to be and once again, in the most difficult of conditions, the team went down two nil, settling for third place overall.

The Christ Church team of Aaron Wright (Capt) Ben Duffy, Liam Forrester, Bryce Hinton, Alex Shearer, Alexander Bootsma and Barney Woo had every right to be proud of their performance, finishing on the podium once again. Credit to old boy Brendon Wright who coached the team at the event, and old boys Sam and Lachy Gilmour for their coaching efforts in the lead up.

To see Geoff McGillivray’s full wrap up of the event, click here.

Photographs courtesy of Jennifer Medd.