Savills IRC Commodore's Cup at the Royal Dart Yacht Club

Savills Commodore's Challenge Cup at the Royal Dart YC © Mike Webster

Savills Commodore's Challenge Cup at the Royal Dart YC © Mike Webster

Savills Commodore's Challenge Cup at the Royal Dart YC © Mike Webster

As part of Royal Dart Yacht Club's 150th Anniversary Celebrations the club hosted the inaugural Commodore's Challenge Cup in partnership with Savills, the global real estate services provider as headline sponsor. The Cup's aim was to encourage competitive quality yacht racing, amongst the participating clubs in order to promote the region to the wider yacht racing community.

The event was held in the waters of Start Bay on the 23rd July 2016. By invitation only, six south west coast yacht clubs responded to the Challenge. Teams from the Yealm YC, Royal Torbay YC, Teign Corinthian YC, Royal Western YC, each entered one team, with two teams from Salcombe YC and three from the Royal Dart YC. The event was run by the International Race Officer, Richard Stevens, together with an RDYC support team and crews manning the mark laying ribs, courtesy of young Naval Officers from the Britannia Royal Naval College. The Royal Ocean Racing Clubs IRC universal rating system was used for the event.

The occasion commenced with a splendid cocktail party on the Friday evening hosted by Savills. Saturday dawned with clear blue skies and winds between 10 and 19 knots, which luckily remained throughout the day. The first race was a windward leeward course, the second an Olympic triangular course and the last, counting double points, was a longer two hour race that took the competitors across the Start Bay as far as Torcross on the western edge.

The racing was amazingly tight in all three races. The results in Bay Race were particularly noteworthy with only five minutes on corrected time between the first 19 of the 27 yacht fleet.

Competitors then returned to the RDYC to enjoy a BBQ whilst the results were calculated. Everyone was entertained by a splendid band and singer from the Yealm Yacht Club. The results were announced with the Royal Western Yacht Club declared overall winners from the Royal Dart 'red' team with the Royal Torbay team in third place. The Royal Western Yacht Club will now have the privilege of hosting the Savills 2017 Commodore's Cup in Plymouth.

Sarah Jane Chick of Savills said: "We've had the best day ever at the Royal Dart - everything exceeded our expectations."

Commodore of Salcombe Yacht Club said: "This has been of tremendous value to our Club in generating more interest in racing".

Organiser of the event Mike Webster commented: "The Commodore's Cup challenge has certainly fulfilled its promise of igniting a competitive spirit amongst the participating clubs, and will now be recognised as a prominent fixture on each clubs racing programme."

Commodore of the Royal Dart Yacht Club Clive Bennett said: "Many thanks to all our members who organised it, to all competitors and to our sponsors, Savills. The success of the event entirely reflects the great work done by the Royal Dart Yacht Club in its 150th year."