S. Thomas’ retrieve their title against favourites Royal

The formidable Thomian Sailing team with their Warden Rev. Marc Billimoria  

In a spectacular comeback on the weekend, S. Thomas’ College regained their glory to convincingly beat this year’s tipped favourites and defending champion Royal, to become holders of the prestigious Ranil Dias Memorial Trophy, for the fifth time. The event held at the picturesque Ceylon Motor Yacht Club in Bolgoda, was abuzz with anticipation, with both teams ready to outperform each other.

The Nanayakkara Sailor brothers who excelled at the Regatta – Tharen, Niveyn, Dhanika and Nikhil

The Regatta which took place recently, concluded with the Thomian crew led by Kethaka Weerasuriya, robbing their opposition Royal College of a consecutive victory. The Royal crew, who were the favourites to retain the Ranil Dias memorial trophy for a second consecutive year, captained by National Sailing Champion, Nisal Walpola were unable to contend with the Thomian grit portrayed by Weerasuriya’s Sailors on both days.

The regatta, which comprised of Individual Races on Friday and Team Races on Saturday, was dominated by the Thomian crew in both boat classes; the Optimist class and the Laser class. This year’s teams were coached by two friends and competitors, both outstanding Sailors themselves, Nadine de Rosayro coaching the Thomian team, having taken over from late Jeremy Bolling and W.P.K. Janaka, Sri Lanka National sailing coach in 2018, and Radheeka Jirasinha coaching Royal College with the support of W.P.K. Janaka. 

Nadine being the current National Champion in the Laser Radial Class and Radheeka with her father Asian Games Bronze Medalist, Lalin Jirasinha, who was also the Race Officer for the Event are the current National Champions in the Enterprise Class. 

The first day comprised five individual races in both Laser and Optimist Classes, with 1 discard. STC was represented by Captain Kethaka Weerasuriya and Vice Captain Movin Jayasinghe, both giving exceptional performances and Royal College by Captain Nisal Walpola and Vice Captain Kaif Sally. Vice Captain Movin cruised over favourite and current National Champion in the Laser 4.7 Class, Royalist Captain Nisal Walpola with a convincing and unmatchable surprise performance of three consecutive firsts to win Gold with STC Captain Kethaka taking Silver and Nisal securing Bronze for Royal. 

The STC Optimist class, led by experienced Junior National Sailor Captain Shashenka Fernando, assisted by Vice Captain Dhanika Nanayakkara, guided STC to a convincing victory. Royal’s Optimist Captain Sahanya Wevita, who had equal points with current National Optimist Champion Dhanika, was able to secure a win in the last race to acquire Gold with Nanayakkara just missing out on a repeat of 2018, taking the Silver, and Udan Marapperuma securing the Bronze for Royal College.  Despite Royal Winning three protests and handing STC three separate disqualifications, they still came out victorious as their lead in points was simply too hard to catch.

The Senior Laser Fleet of both schools showed supreme class as being the most well behaved fleet with not a single protest during the series. At the end of first day individual race results stood at, STC 4, Royal 0. The second day of the Regatta was for Team Racing, with the best of three races for the two boat classes, Laser and Optimist, which had the A teams and the B teams competing with each other respectively. Team Racing requires a team of four to use a different set of tactics and strategies to that of the first day’s individual races, to ensure obtaining a lower point aggregate of the total team, to that of the opponent.

STC Optimist A and Optimist B led by Enalka de Silva, crewed by Sashen Ellawala, Akash de Silva and Shevon Ponniah, won outright with two straight wins. STC Laser B led by Sarith Perera, crewed by Haresh Goonawardene, Movin Jayasinghe and Niveyn Nanayakkara threw some Chilli and Spice in for the spectators, having the decider in the last race, but ultimately easing to a win with a 1-2-3-4 combination which is the best and rarest combination to come by. 

The last team race of the day with Laser A led by Captain Kethaka Weerasuriya, crewed by Akil Ismail, Jordan Bolling and Zai Pestonjee, was a nail biter, though S. Thomas’ victory was untouchable at this point. With close calls, Royal’s Senior Team of Nisal Walpola, Kaif Sally, Binara Battuwan and Anuka Samaraweera secured the only win for Royal College in the series to take the Ray Wijewardene Memorial Trophy. This year was the inaugural presentation of the Jeremy Bolling Memorial Cup, commemorating one of Sri Lanka’s foremost sailors. It was presented by his brother Olympian Julian Bolling and his daughter Jade Bolling, for the best Optimist team, which was won by  STC Optimist ‘A’ Team. The team was led by Captain Shashenka Fernando and crewed by brothers Dhanika, Tharen and Nikhil Nanayakkara, all trained under Jeremy’s watchful eyes.

After two days of sailing, with ten points up for grabs in the two racing formats, the Royal side managed to scrape a win in the Laser ‘A’ team race, obtaining two points to an otherwise clean sweep from the Thomian side, giving a final tally for the regatta of 8-2 to the victorious Thomians who claimed rights to four of five trophies – The Ranil Dias Memorial Trophy, The Jeremy Bolling Memorial Challenge Cup, The Best Laser B Team Challenge Trophy and The North Sails Challenge Trophy for the Best Laser Sailor after winning five of six events.

“Royal gave a good fight, however, with Uncle Jeremy (the late Jeremy Bolling) in our hearts, and our Coach’s voice in our heads our team was able to endure and overcome all obstacles to emerge victorious today,” the Captain of the Thomian sailing team, Weerasuriya stated.