Light winds challenge sailors in final two Match Racing qualifiers

by RYA on 25 Oct 2016 On the first weekend of October (1-2), six teams gathered at Queen Mary Sailing Club in London to compete for a spot in this year’s Grand Final in November.

With a wide variety of sailors, from experienced match racers returning after years away from the discipline through teams who caught the bug at the recent Youth Match Racing Championships to members of the British Sailing Team trying Match Racing for the first time, everyone was sure to face challenges through the event.

Despite the cloudy skies the sailors headed afloat as quickly as they could after the briefing, all keen to get as much practice as possible in the Royal Thames Yacht Club’s J/80’s before racing got underway.

The first of ten flights got underway with opening wins from Christian Hamilton, Santiago Sampaio and Ali Young. The light winds and occasional rain showers made the reservoir shiftier than normal and team’s tactics were tested as hard as their wet weather gear making sure they didn’t end up on the wrong side of a 30 degree shift.

The varied conditions kept the racing close and the umpire team, led by Nick Rusbridge, were kept on their toes throughout the day. With the massive shifts making life hard on the committee boat, the PRO did a great job to keep the racing going all day, finally succumbing to a lack of wind just before 5pm with ten flights completed with only three matches left to sail the next day to complete the double round robin.

As the teams gathered to draw for boats on Sunday morning the rain showers of the previous day had been replaced with glorious sunshine and a crisp autumn day with a gentle breeze on the water.

With the last three matches of the round robin completed in quick time the teams were paired up for their semi-final matches.

In the first semi-final, Christian Hamilton sailing with Ed Hill, Tom Whitburn and Arden Tomison had a battle on his hands against the younger Santiago Sampaio sailing with his Southampton Solent University team mates, Herman Fostvedt, Tom Charter and Nicole Ames but Hamilton had blown away the cobwebs of a seven year break from match racing and took three straight wins to secure his place in the final.

In semi-final two, Ali Young sailing with her British Sailing Team colleagues Sophie Ainsworth, Amy Seabright, Anna Carpenter and Fynn Sterrit, lost their first match against Quentin Bes-Green and his team of Nick Denney, Fraser Woodley and Matt Whitfield before regaining their composure to win the next three races and their spot in the final.

In the petit-final Bes-Green took the upper hand winning the first race, but Sampaio did not lose his cool and fought back to take third place overall in some very tight racing with both teams crossing the finish line very close in their races.

In the final Young took an early lead, winning the first match but Hamilton brought the match level in the second. He took another win in the third but had to leave the event early. This left his team of Whitburn and Tomison to sail with Ed Hill taking over as helmsman. The lads fought gallantly, sailing very well in the pre-start but they just weren’t able to match the superior speed of Young who sailed to easy wins in the last two matches and with it her place in the Grand Finals.

The final Open National Match Racing Championships qualifier was held on the 8-9 October at the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club’s Ceilidh Cup and Scottish University Sailing (SSS) Match Racing Championships, Scotland’s only match racing event.

Nine teams competed, including seven representing Scottish universities. With only nine teams able to attend the standard of entry was high. Notably among them, defending champion Nicole McPherson relinquished her helming role on the RNCYC team in favour of Mark Greenhalgh. St Mary’s Loch SC was helmed by former Edinburgh and Strathclyde sailor, Ali Morrish.

Among the university competitors, Joe Penhaul Smith was helming for the University of Highland and Islands, its first competitive entry in an SSS event. Strathclyde University had two entries, helmed by Peter Cameron and Ewan Rycroft. Alex Ekström, formerly of St Andrews, helmed for Edinburgh University. St Andrews introduced experienced Hungarian Nacra 17 sailor Balázs Gecse to match racing this weekend. The remaining teams represented Aberdeen University (Ailsa Muskett) and Glasgow University (Louis Sisk).

On Saturday seven of the ten flights were completed in light airs. Sunday dawned sunny, but with a forecast lighter in the wind department than Saturday’s. However, with sufficient wind, racing got underway, with a further two flights completed before the wind died, just in time for lunch.

After a two-hour delay, and with the result for the Ceilidh Cup clear, the race committee elected to reschedule racing to focus upon the SSS Match Racing Championship. By moving inshore, the PRO found a five knot thermal band that permitted racing to continue for a further three races before the time limit expired.

The overall Ceilidh Cup prize was awarded to RNCYC’s own entry, helmed by Mark Greenhalgh, with crew David (Daka) Fadipe, Nicole McPherson and Alan Yendell, having seven wins from seven races sailed.

In the SSS competition, identified from matches against university teams, there was a three-way tie for first place: Strathclyde University Blue (helmed by Peter Cameron, crew Eilidh Bruce Angus Gray-Stephens and Rhuaridh Wright); University of Edinburgh (helmed by Alex Ekström, crew Archie Chitty, Suzy Peters, Ross Slater) and St Andrews University (helmed by Balázs Gecse, crew Alex Carter, Henry Cross and Ellery Sever).

The Grand Final will be held at Queen Mary Sailing Clubon the 18-20 November, 12 teams will battle it out to be crowned the 2016 National Match Racing Champion.