Royal Thames Imperial Trophy (Farr 45 Match Racing) — 04 July '09

04 July –05 July

A weekend of match racing for a magnificent and historic trophy

Final Results

Results for Saturday's round robin are here.

Some great action shots via the lens of Paul Wyeth are here.

and some video footage of the weekend courtesy of The Knowledge Zone and Cowes Online here.

Jerry Otter's always well-sailed Werewolf retained her title over the weekend of July 4^th and 5^th as the Farr 45 match-racing champion, but not before new-kid-on-the-block Laurence Mead steering Shaun and Emily Frohlich's Exabyte Four had given the established champions something to think about and Agne Nilsson in Fortis Excel had briefly toppled both from the top perch.

Racing for the Royal Thames Imperial Trophy, a magnificent 80cm-high trophy of Teutonic proportions originally presented by Kaiser Wilhelm in 1906, eight Farr 45s fought over 50 individual matches over two days to decide who among them was this year's champion.  Each boat raced every other boat on the Saturday in a full 28-match round robin both as the warm-up for the main event and to establish the seeding position for Sunday's no-place-to-hide ladder competition. The ladder is a cruel instrument. Ranked by her round-robin results, each boat holds a place on the ladder and races against the boat immediately below or above. Win the match, and you advance one rung up the ladder - but lose the match, and you slide down two: the place you have just been on and the rung below, now occupied by the next boat coming up, having won its own promotion/ relegation battle. The winner of the top-rung match and the loser of the bottom-rung match stay where they are. Not so much a ladder, more a hill of sand.  There is no standing still.  To keep the tension high, the top two positions on the ladder are always decided in the final match of any flight. while the constant re-shuffling means that very quickly peer is racing peer and – unlike in a round-robin - there are no easy wins to be had. Here's how it works:

In match 1, 7^th meets 8^th, in match  2, 6^th meets 5^th – and so on. The winner of the match moves up a match in the next flight (towards the final match) – the loser down a match (towards match one). Since the final flight of the ladder is also the final of the competition, in it the two on the top rung race for the trophy, the loser taking runner-up slot, the two on the second rung sail off for third and fourth, the two on the next for fifth and sixth and so on. The ladder is in effect a rolling semi-final and quarter final with no security of tenure for anyone.

After Saturday's round-robin Agne Nilsson's Fortis Excel (already the winner of this year's Royal Thames David Diehl trophy in this year Farr 45 Inshore Series) finished on the top rung alongside Werewolf. The two had 6 wins each in the round robin, but Fortis had beaten \Werewolf in her match. Rung three was Simon Henning's Alice II versus Exabyte Four; rung two was Atomic (Tony Langley) and Jack Pringle's Fraxious; rung one Jeff Blue in Espresso Martini and Stewart Whitehead with Rebel.  Espresso, Fraxious and Exabyte all moved up a rung after flight one: Fortis Excel, Alice II and Atomic moved down a rung. Werewolf and Rebel stayed in place at the top and bottom respectively.

Flight Two provided the major upset, when Exabyte reached the top of the ladder and displaced Werewolf, the first time in over 100 matches in the class that Werewolf has been off the top rung. Alice II was also moved up the ladder with a good win over Espresso.

The stage was now set for some drama. If Exabyte could beat Fortis, she would stay not just on the top rung but also in the number one ranking slot and tightening her grip on the trophy, while if Alice could beat Werewolf she would oust Fortis from her place on the top rung, leaving the two favourites in unfamiliar territory down the ladder and two newcomers at the top of the pile.

It was not to be. Mead – an experienced match and team racer – was all aggression in the pre-start and harried Fortis for all he was worth – but the umpires were not impressed and in these short sharp matches starting with two penalties is starting with no way back. The Exabyte crew saved their energies and let Fortis walk away on her own, content merely to complete the course in good order and wait for the next round. Werewolf's crew decided they really did not like being anywhere other than at the top of the ladder and showed Alice no mercy.

Exabyte then made no mistakes over beating Atomic, thus letting her back on to the top rung for what would be the fifth and final flight of the ladder racing, and thus the de facto final for the trophy while Werewolf once again deposed Fortis, setting the scene for an Exabyte – Werewolf showdown.

It was, it must be said, almost an anti-climax. Eager to get at her opponent, Exabyte rushed the start and, coming in from the starboard side, was almost a boat-length into the pre-start zone before the signal. That was one penalty down even before the pair locked horns and against Werewolf starting one penalty down is starting with one penalty too many.

Match racing is heavy on logistic support and evenly-matched big boats are hard to find, which is probably why this Royal Thames Yacht Club series is the only big-boat match race series in the country – but that it is rewarding work for both race committee and competitors alike is not in dispute. As Graham Sunderland, tactician aboard Atomic phrased it after Sunday's battle with Exabyte: 'we learnt more in this two day event than in a whole year of fleet racing. The intensity of racing short courses in big keel boats is great fun & exhausting. Whilst recognising our own improvements we saw other teams make great leaps forward too. Long may this event last as I believe it delivers a much needed opportunity for improvement in keel boat racing'.

The Notice of Race for the regatta is here. 

The Sailing Instructions are here.

The Round Robin pairings schedule is here.

For more information please contact the Sailing Office: Malcolm McKeag 020 7201 6265 or Jonathan Beeston 020 7201 6262