J80 RTYC Team Race Series Final — 27 March '11

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Mark 'Y' Lees wins Mum's Bucket

He joined the club as a Cadet Member only in February but on Sunday 27th March Mark David Lees - known as Mark Y Lees (it's a long story) to distinguish him from the other Mark Lees, Mark Graham Lees - won the Club's Random Pairs two-boat team racing championship and with it Mum's Bucket, the trophy presented by Patrick Kelly specifically to encourage team racing practice within the Club.  Sailing with Toby and Mark (another one!) Yeabsley he beat Amelia Boadle and Thomas and Michele Brennan to take the title two-nil in the first-to-score-two-points final.

The day was the culmination of our four-weekend  Club Random Pairs series, ably and enthusiastically put together and managed by immediate past Captain of Racing Thomas Brennan and another example of the expansion in the Club's sailing programme that has been made possible by the joint purchase with RYS of the J80s.

From the previous weekends six helmsmen had emerged top: Amelia, Henry Arnold, Olly Dix, William Edwards, Richard Hill and Mark. The Random Pairs format mixes and matches individual crews into impromptu two-boat teams so that so far as is possible during the course of the day everyone gets the chance to race both with and against as many other crews as possible. Each time a crew is in a winning team, they score one point, with no points scored if they are in the losing team. The theory is that the best team racers score most points since, even when matched with a weaker team racing crew, their own skills will so help the team-mate while bamboozling the opposition that they still win.

Nine random-paired races had been scheduled, allowing each crew to race six times and stand aside three times, then with a final between the two highest-scoring crews. To test their mettle thoroughly, each high-scorer would be paired with one of the two lowest-scoring crews for their sail-offs, swapping team-mates after the first race and again, if necessary, after the second. First to score two points  - i.e. twice lead a winning team - would win Mum's Bucket and be declared Club Champion.

In the event with the breeze lighter than one would have wished, with two delays for any breeze at all and with the day advancing there was time to complete only six of the scheduled nine races, by which time each crew had raced four times.  Amelia and Henry Arnold opened the scoring beating Olly and Will, then Olly and Will had a win against Richard and Mark who then bounced back and beat Amelia and Henry. This left everyone with one point - not a good moment for the score-keeper. Amelia and Mark then beat first Henry and Olly and then Will and Richard. Henry paired with Will then lost to Olly and Richard.

This left Amelia and Mark on three points each, Olly and Richard on two points each and Will and Henry on one point each.

In the first sail-off Mark and Richard beat Amelia and Henry before swapping team-mates; Mark then won again, this time paired with Henry.

All-in-all, Mark led a winning team five times out of six matches sailed - an impressive enough start to his team-racing career with Royal Thames.

Race officer for the day was Alexis Dogilewski assisted by Linda Pennington and the lead umpires (each non-racing crew provided an umpire apiece) were Jack Edwards and John Dallimore.