Grand Final of the RYA National Match Racing Championship 2025
by British Keelboat Sailing 23 Oct 2025 20:08 AEDT
17-19 October 2025
Close racing at the Grand Final for RYA National Match Racing Championship in London saw Nick Devereux and his team emerging victorious to take the 2025 title.
Ten of the country's top teams battled it out over an action-packed three days of racing across a full range of wind conditions at Queen Mary Sailing Club (17-19 October).
With a ready-to-go fleet of Sonar keelboats provided by Royal Thames Yacht Club, racing got under way on the Friday with four flights completed in shifty lights airs.
It became apparent from the off that this invitational Grand Final would be hugely competitive, with all of the teams having qualified after achieving outstanding results in the 2025 RYA National Match Racing Championship series or gained selection with a wildcard ticket.
Teams included RYA Youth Match Racing and British Universities & Colleges Sport Match Racing champion Jamie Tylecote; RYA Women's Match Racing champion Alice Lucy; and Ben Tylecote and Fred Salter, who presented GBR at the 2025 Youth Match Racing Worlds. Also competing was a young team from Oxford Sailing Club, all aged 14-16 and skippered by Daniel Larsen, who was among the crew that won the U-19 RYA youth title in 2025.
Round robin & repechage
Saturday brought a steady south easterly 8-10 knots of breeze slowly clocking right as forecast, enabling the rest of the round robin series to be completed, with a number of results having to be separated on countback, such was the quality of the fleet.
Topping the leaderboard were the teams of Ben Tylecote and Nick Devereux in first and second, each counting eight wins from their nine matches, with Oli Hale and Jamie Tylecote sitting third and fourth overall respectively, both with six wins.
An extremely tight repechage then went down to the very last race to decide which of the seven teams from 4th to 10th in the round robin would go through the semi-finals.
The racing for the repechage began on the Saturday afternoon and continued into Sunday with a building breeze of up to 15 knots to test teamwork and boat handling.
Terry Hacker's Southampton University SC team, who had finished the round robin in fifth overall, topped the repechage results to leapfrog into the semi-finals, with the next three teams of Fred Salter, Jamie Tylecote and Julian Fung finishing 5th to 7th and having to be separated on countback.
Semis & Finals
Hacker would continue his winning ways, taking Semi Final 1 with a 2:0 scoreline from Rutland Sailing Club skipper Ben Tylecote to make it all the way into the final.
Semi Final 2 meanwhile saw two photo finishes and plenty of penalty flag waving for Nick Devereux and Oli Hale, each claiming a race win before Devereux took the third.
Tylecote went on to win the Petit Final 2:0 from Oli Hale to finish on the podium in third overall.
A hard fought final then went to four matches with Devereux ultimately winning 3:1 from Hacker, who having won Qualifier 1 of 2025 in his first ever match racing event as a skipper, finished his season in style with silver at the Grand Final.
Top three
1. Nick Devereux, Steph Orton, Matt Taylor, Alex Hughes
2. Terry Hacker, Tim Evans, Mathias Potter, Lucy Street (Southampton University SC)
3. Ben Tylecote, Issy Leetch, Dylan Beatty, Harry Burge (Rutland SC)
Full results
Winning skipper Nick Devereux said: "It was a great weekend. We really enjoyed the racing and completing the round robin on Saturday in a good position. The racing was really close with everyone, and we never felt like we were given an easy race all weekend, especially in the semis and final against Oli and Terry. As a team we have done little bits of sailing together and so just sticking to the basics and keeping a routine I think really helped us, along with Steph, Matt and Alex keeping the boat going really quickly."
Thanks to go Queen Mary Sailing Club and Royal Thames Yacht Club for hosting the event and to all the volunteers who make RYA match racing events possible, including the safety and support boat drivers, race officials and umpires.
Race officer Ann Roy said: "The breeze provided a full variety of conditions and made for fantastic racing which was really close. There was lots of tussling going on throughout the whole weekend and the final was closely fought as well, which meant no one was able to run away with it. The sailors were all great with top quality racing for everybody, so it was just amazing. I really enjoy supporting match racing and absolutely loved it."
Find out more about match racing and taking part at www.rya.org.uk/racing/keelboat-racer/match-racing