Published on: 2 May 2014





Christ Church won the Schools Teams Racing Championship for the 19th time in 22 years during the Term 1 holidays. The win means Christ Church has secured a berth to represent WA at the national titles to be held in Sydney in July.

Director of Sailing Geoff McGillivray said for the first time, this year’s event was hosted by Mandurah Offshore Fishing and Sailing Club and held at Mandjar Bay in the Mandurah estuary. Competing against 15 teams from 13 schools, including Hale, Wesley, Scotch and Aquinas, the Christ Church A team completed 23 races without a loss.

The A team, including Lachy Gilmour, Max Giudice, Brendon Wright, Josh Hinton, Aaron Wright, Liam Forrester and Alexander Shearer, proved to be a dominant force from the start, soaring to the top of the leader board after two days of round robin racing against the seven other teams in their pool.

Mr McGillivray said the B team, consisting of Alex Negri, Jack Swallow, Tom Giudice, Bryce Hinton, Felix King, Ryan Martin and Rohin Kehal, was also prominent but not as consistent. “This team showed great tenacity to finish the round robin series in third place in their pool and securing an opportunity to compete against the top five teams on the final day of competition,” he said.

After two days of steady 5 to 10 knot south-south westerly breezes, the final day dawned with the lightest of winds, barely strong enough to counteract the current generated by the incoming tide. Christ Church A continued on its winning way regardless, finishing the penultimate round robin on top while Christ Church B finished fifth just missing out on a place in the finals.

After a convincing two out of three victories against Aquinas in the semi-finals, Christ Church took on Shenton College, who had won against Hale. Winning the first of the three race grand final with clear 1, 2 and 4 placings, the team then proceeded to a 1, 2, 3 victory in the second race, claiming the title for the School with Hale finishing in third place overall.

The event also marked the 10th consecutive year of representation, at State level, by a member of the Gilmour family. Following in the footsteps of elder brothers David (2008) and Sam (2010), also Christ Church’s current head sailing coach, Lachy captained the Christ Church A team to a resounding victory.

Photographs courtesy of Anna McGillivray, Geoff McGillivray and Jennifer Medd