Also taking place at Queen Mary Sailing Club was RYA Match Racing Qualifier 2. This had to suffer a period of no wind and racing concluded at the end of the Round Robin. When the wind did fill in; the conditions were shifty but otherwise near perfect. Congratulations to Matt Whitfield; taking the win from Christian Hamilton; with Ali Moorish coming out top of the four way tie for third. — with Owen Bowerman and Matt Whitfield.

The London Six Pack scheduled for this weekend was cancelled.

Despite these difficult conditions the Youths sailed 120 races, giving almost all the 24 teams 10 races while the Juniors did 112 races so each of the 28 teams got 8 races before going to knockouts for the top 4 teams in each section.

In the Youths Rugby school beat Sevenoaks White 2:0 while Sevenoaks Red needed three races to beat OYRA 2:1. The Semis and Peti final both went to three races and the final order for the top four was 1st Rugby School (Photo) 2nd Sevenoaks Red, 3rd OTRA and 4th Sevenoaks White.

In the Juniors both Semis went to three races with Hollowell/Shustoke defeating Royal Hospital School and Hayling Island beating Rutland Gold. The Final took three races with Hollowell/Shustoke emerging the winners and Hayling Island in second place, third was Rutland gold with a 2:0 victory over Royal Hospital School who were third.

Full results are available at http://events.ksail.co.uk/2018/ETJuniors/ and there will be a full result at RYA.org.uk in due course. Live video of the event can be found at https://www.facebook.com/Britishyouthsailingteam/. I have some photos from Saturday - if you want to see them e-mail nigelvick@aol.com

The octet of sailors from the historic London yacht club won 18 of 21 races over the course of three days at the Global 2K Team Racing event hosted by the New York Yacht Club . The team representing NYYC finished second with a 16 wins and five losses. St Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco) was third at 15-6. Reale Circolo Canottieri Tevere Remo (Rome, Italy) fourth with a 14-7 record.

“We’re really pleased,” said Royal Thames team captain Ben Field. “One of the great things about two-on-two is that it’s never really over [until the fourth boat cross the finish line]. We just keep sticking to the game plans and nibbling away and hopefully we’ll get the result that we want. It is good that some of us have sailed together for a long time, Me and Andy, the other helmsman, have sailed together for almost 20 years in various team races.”

A dozen teams from 10 countries, including Japan, Argentina and Australia, traveled to Newport for a frenetic weekend of sailing at the very end of the northeast sailing season. They were rewarded with wind from 5 to 20 knots, a matched fleet of 22 Sonar keelboats, an efficient race committee that cranked out 126 races and the unparalleled hospitality of the New York Yacht Club.

Proponents of team racing, including New York Yacht Club Commodore Phil Lotz, who threw his full support behind the event, hope the Global Team Race Regatta will spur team racing’s ascendancy to the pinnacle of competitive small-boat sailing, the Olympic Games. Of course, one successful team race isn’t going to sufficiently charm the International Olympic Committee, but there was nonetheless a lot riding on this event.

“This regatta was very much a proof-of-concept event,” said event chair Steven Wolff, who also served as one of the umpires for the event. “Given the number of unknowns, we couldn’t be more pleased with the final product. It was an incredibly successful test. Royal Thames is a worthy champion. But it was really great to see how everyone progressed and learned over the weekend, including the competitors, umpires and race organizers. There’s a lot here to build upon for the second edition next September in England.”

Filippo Molinari is the president of the 2K Team Racing International Association, which is charged with promoting two-on-two team racing. He is also an avid competitor and sailed this weekend as part of the team from the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Italy.

“The organization and the people here were incredible,” he said. “We had a fantastic three days of racing and one day of practicing, so we had a very long weekend. It was tiring, but very satisfying. For the YCCS team, it was satisfying sailing. For the 2K Association, it was fantastic to build up this relationship with New York Yacht Club and the other teams that came from very far away. We hope that, with the help of the NYYC, it’s going to grow.”

While there’s a lot of work still to do, the enthusiasm of the nearly 100 competitors combined with the announcement that the Royal Yacht Squadron will hold the second edition of the Global Team Race in Cowes, England, next September, would seem to indicate that two-on-two team racing is on the right track.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Edinburgh were busy winning the Ceilidh Cup at the Royal Northern and Clyde YC. For a report Click Here

In the semis Winchester College beat OTRA 2:0 but Rugby had a harder task against MCS needing three races to come out on top and qualify for the final. 

The peti final saw MCS beat OTRA 2:0 to finish in third place while the Final went to three races and saw the Rugby team of Julian Fung (Capt), Rory Odell, Rufus Pawsey, Olivia Jacklin, William Jacklin and Haoran Cao emerge victorious with a score of 2:1 over Winchester.

Full results are available at http://events.ksail.co.uk/2018/BSDRAMidlands/  Photos are Here

Don't forget the RYA National Umpire Team Racing Seminar at Bartley Sailing Club on the 1st and 2nd of December 2018. Spaces are available. This course is a first step towards gaining an RYA National Umpire qualification, but will also be of interest to anyone aiming to learn more about umpiring or team racing in general. Some experience of team racing, or of umpiring will be helpful. Details and booking at https://www.rya.org.uk/racing/race-officials/want-to-be-a-race-official/training-courses-seminars/Pages/umpires.aspx