INTERCLUB TEAM RACING CHALLENGE — 25 April '10

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RTYC vs SVYC

TR:  RTYC vs SVYC, 25th April

 

Was this event part of, or not part of, our Spring Excuse?  Was it even conceivable that young  aggressive Team Racers could mix in the polite company of gentle cruising folk either ashore or especially at sea amongst mermaids (now, there’s a thought but no, I mean those of Seaview) built for and normally sailed to gentlemen’s standards ?

On Saturday, news filtered through to the TR racing pits that the gentlemanly circling mermaid fleet had been infiltrated by some of the alien pretenders to Sundays TR prize.  Yet it was Peter Tracey who was in the lead at lunch,  disarmingly smiling as ever.  It is understood  that the inability of the aliens to enjoy civilised lunches redressed the balance in the afternoon leaving them competitive winners but undernourished (brilliant  Monty, Paul and Alex – you can have lunch next time);  the gentle folk were magnanimous  in their close defeat and content with their quality of life.

Nevertheless, despite the prior exposure of at least some of the aliens to mermaids, the challenge of the real day of racing on Sunday proved an altogether different matter.  Seaview had mustered its finest to give us a lesson in coaxing the best out of their friendly mermaids and, despite some excellent and competitive racing in beautiful conditions, won the day, overall.   The morning racing consisted of three 2-boat teams from each club;  the William Edwards/Richard Hill team scored 2 victories early on built on their combined experience in team racing and their familiarity with Mermaids.   The afternoon racing was between two 3-boat teams.  By this time all crews were clearly benefitting from their experience in handling Mermaids gained in the morning racing and in the 3-boat series of 4 races honours were even.  (Full results attached).  Our thanks go to the CRO Richard Prest and his Committee and to Brian Smith and his team of umpires for maintaining firm but civilised control of an excellent day’s racing.

For the club, this was a ‘bronze’ event, one of many we are organising to take advantage of our fleet of J80’s.  The aim is not just to support our highly successful international Club team racing but to make team racing more accessible to all members, to demonstrate to them what exciting and sociable events they can be even at a less exalted level and to encourage them to enjoy participating in them. This was an excellent example of that and all our thanks go to the Sea View Yacht Club for their fine hospitality.  In particular, we thank Richard Prest for initiating and organising our Spring Excuse weekend and, in particular, issuing the Team Racing challenge to the Royal Thames.  We thank both Richard and the Sea View Yacht Club for the excellent organisation of the event at Seaview and for an extremely enjoyable weekend .    

   For detailed results please click here