Academy Event Reports

2010 Cambridge Cup

Report by Pippa Girling

Event: Cambridge Cup Hosted by Cambridge University at Grafham Water

Format: Dinghy team racing in fireflies

 "The Royal Thames Team Racing team enjoyed another successful event in Cambridge on the 6th and 7th March. In the run up to the UK Team Racing Association Nationals, the Cambridge Cup proved good practice, playing host to several experienced graduate teams among the field of University teams with a  total of sixteen entrants.

 


Royal Thames finished the first day with only one loss, to a British Universities Sailing team.  This meant a place in the gold league on the second day, another bright day with light breezes. After two losses, the team was placed third going into the semi-finals. Royal Thames were drawn against the eventual event winners, West Kirby, in the semi-finals, eventually losing 2 races to 1 in a closely fought semi-final. West Kirby went on to beat Exeter university in the finals.

Despite not reaching the finals on this occasion, the team were pleased with a solid performance and particularly with the benefit of some close racing in preparation for the nationals in a couple of weeks, which will be held at West Kirby."

2010 Warwick Turtle

The Royal Thames Academy second team Thames 2's got their first victory of the season at the Warwick Turtle.

Racing took place in sunshine and an arctic northerly of about 10 kts. After a hesitant first race which was won on the last beat Thames dominated in fine style finishing the day without loss.

The days racing was complimented by a fine performance at the social where the team were victorious in the cracker eating challenge and a runner up in the boat race and limbo competition.

On the Sunday the teams were split into Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets providing the Thames with an opportunity to race against the strongest competition. After a very light and cold start to the day, allowing vital recovery time we were again greeted by a 10kts Northerly. Thames were starting to look like they might retain there clean sheet on the Sunday until a momentary slip in concentration caused them to lose the 1 in a 1, 4, 5 combination and they suffered defeat at the hands of a well drilled Portsmouth.

Having lost only one race a piece within the series it was to be a Thames - Portsmouth final. The gun for the start of the first race of the final went and at mark 1 Portsmouth had the lead with a 1, 4, 5. Thames reacted quickly with a textbook conversion into a 2, 3, 4 and continued to manage Portsmouth perfectly up the last beat to win race 1. The final was to be the best of three and so one more victory would win Thames the trophy. With reinvigorated confidence Thames came off the line in great shape and by the top mark had a solid 1, 2, 3. A dubious infringement at mark 2 lost Thames the 3rd place but the distraction was enough to allow 1st and 2nd to sail clear to the finish line and take the overall 1st prize and the notorious Warwick Turtle Trophy.

It has taken a few events this season to fine tune the team for the Thames 2's, however we are now in a position where we have a set team, with all the helms being RTYC members and two out of four of our crews being members.


The team at the Turtle was:

James Boyce                Beck Shuttleworth
David Newey                 Lizzie Chellew
Matthew Pinner             Emma Feggeter

 

2009 Lee Trophy

The 2009 Lee Trophy, hosted by Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, was held over the weekend of 9-10 October in Oyster Bay, NY. The event, now in its 7th year, has firmly established itself at the forefront of the US keelboat team racing calendar.

The Royal Thames team, skippered by Mark Lees, Jon Pinner and Tom Heywood, travelled to New York on Thursday night to allow for a short but focussed training session on the Friday to acclimatise to the boats and venue.

Saturday morning dawned with a stiff north-westerly breeze of 18-20 knots and bright sunshine. The breeze was well-received by the Thames team since the Americans traditionally hold a speed advantage over us Brits in lighter winds. Racing commenced in two flights of Sonars, allowing four of the seven teams to race at any one time. In a break from tradition, the non-sailing teams were put to work by policing the racing from 6 provided umpire boats. A skipper from one team would be matched with a crew from another team to ensure a balanced umpiring team. The system received widespread praise from competitors and organisers alike.

The Thames team started well with tough wins over Eastern YC and NYYC 2. Starting was solid and we managed to hold speed against the Americans in the building breeze and short chop. The conditions made for some very exciting downwind legs and frequent place changes were seen throughout the 20 minute races. After the second flight, chief race officer, Al Constants wisely decided to prohibit spinnakers to avoid damaging the boats. This made for closer races with more team racing. A further win, against Seawanhaka 2, was followed by a careless loss to Larchmont. The day finished on a high with consecutive wins against NYYC 1 and Seawanhaka 1 who were comprised of 3 current BA Cup skippers. The race against Seawanhaka 1 was particularly keenly fought right up to the finish line, culminating in a successful 1,4,5 finish for the Thames.

The first round robin complete, the competitors headed back for a cocktail party hosted by event sponsors, Mr and Mrs Bruce Lee. A satisfying day, with the Thames sitting at the top of the leader board on 5 wins and just a single loss.

Sunday would present a different set of challenges with 8-10 knots of shifty wind. A complete second round robin would be sailed in favour of sailing a knockout series. Consistency was the key to day two, with every race contributing to the overall positions. Unfortunately, the Thames struggled to find the starting form that gave us a real advantage on day one. Despite this the team kept it together until the two final races of the day against Seawanhaka 2 and NYYC 1. Two victories were required to win the event, but this proved elusive and the Thames were ultimately relegated to 3rd overall by virtue of a tie break from second. Congratulations go to NYYC 1 who sailed an excellent day posting a clean sweep of six victories.

Thanks must go to Seawanhaka CYC for inviting the Thames back to this excellent event for the third consecutive year. We look forward to returning in 2010. 

Oxford Magnum, Nov 21-22 2009


Teams arrived to 12 knots of breeze at Farmoor Reservoir for the Oxford
Magnum. The racing was three boat team racing in Fireflies, and PRO Jo
Lucas scheduled 2 round robins of ten teams each. Sailing was under the
watchful eyes of both student & veteran umpires attending the ISAF Team
Racing Umpire Seminar, which ran in parallel with the event.

Racing was underway in good time, but a steadily increasing breeze
called for a short delay as competitors changed to smaller sails. The
RTYC team made short work of the round robin, beating each opponent team
comfortably. A suprise call for a re-sail against the WKSC team saw a
challenging race for the umpires, with RTYC losing out narrowly in the
latter stages of the course. The team finished the round robin with 8
wins and 1 loss.

By Sunday afternoon the wind had increased even more, with competitors
flogging both mainsails and jibs just to stay upright in the gusts. The
top teams from each round robin entered quarter finals, with RTYC seeing
off London University before being knocked out by West Kirby Hawks, the event winners,
in two close semi-final races.

Thanks go to PRO Jo Lucas and her team, the Umpires, Farmoor staff and
OUYC members for putting the event together.

RTYC was represented by Dave Royse, Nikki Russell, Rob Style, Pippa
Girling, Jon Pinner & Ben Lister

 

 

 

 


Fortunately, the rain which began Saturday cleared up in time for the first start and it turned into a bright, cold day with a pleasant 12-14 knots of breeze. The event was run on a new basis, which had been previously trialled at Team Racing Youth Events this year. Instead of the usual round robin system, teams did not have to sail everyone, but after 80 races on the first day were sorted into leagues based on number of wins. This allowed the race organisers more flexibility and control over when to start and finish each day.