British Sailing Team Virtual Regatta
by Jonny McGovern 27 Apr 2020 15:40 BST
26 April 2020
This weekend the British Sailing Team held a Virtual Regatta to challenge its sailors, coaches and support team whilst real-life water activity is limited. As an official supplier to the British Sailing Team - Marlow Ropes were keen to get involved in the action with a top prize from them going to the lucky winner!
40 sailors took to the virtual waters to test their racing brains and have some good old "Banter", the sailors had a zoom call set up during racing. The Final was Hosted by Sarah McGovern with expert race analysis and commentary by Stevie Morrison.
There were 2 rounds to the regatta with the First round qualifying through to a Top ten shootout, much like the medal race format that the sailors are used to. Round 1 involved 2 flights completing 4 races with 1 discard. After some seamless race management and some seriously close racing we were left with the Top 10 that progress through to the Streamed Final.
In the Final we had a real mix of racers with:
- 2x coaches - James Gray & Jonny McGovern
- 2x 470 sailors - Luke Patience & James Taylor
- 1 Laser sailor - Sam Whaley
- 2x 49er crews - Stuart Bithell & Rhos Hawes
- 1 windsurfer - Kieran Holmes Martin
- 1 Nacra 17 sailor - Ben Saxton
- 1 RYA rocket scientist. - Adam May
The Final was streamed on YouTube:
We had World Class Commentary From Stevie Morrison. The format was designed to test the adaptability of the finalists, 3 races were held in a different class for each race (J70/49er/F50) no discard was applied so it had a "all or nothing" feel. The fleet didn't disappoint and after some intense racing and some great racing chat, after the dust settled a BST champion was crowned... James Gray Took the title! Rumour has it that James is a full time sponsored VR racer but he sailed a very consistent series with all top 3's to count.
Quote from our Champion - "What a fantastic way for British Sailing Team sailors, Coaches and Support staff to rub shoulders racing each other around a course. All of the emotional sensations of a real race on show! Great Banter. Thank to team Sponsor Marlow for the goodie bag. Looking forward to pimping out my Waszp for when we are next allowed afloat."
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sailor Name | Real Life Class | VR Boatname | R1 | R2 | R3 |
|---|
| 1 | James Gray | VSR | James Gray RYA | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 | James Taylor | 470 | JTGBR7 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 3 | Sam Whaley | Laser | WhaleX | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| 4 | Luke Patience | 470 | Weepearl | 7 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | Jonny McGovern | VSR | jonnymcboatface | 2 | 9 | 6 |
| 6 | Kieran Holmes‑Martin | RSX | Boat47463 | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| 7 | Ben saxton | Nacra 17 | Saxtondale | 8 | 4 | 8 |
| 8 | Stuart Bithell | 49er | Biffmeister | 10 | 7 | 4 |
| 9 | Adam May | VSR | Foilborne | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| 10 | Rhos Hawes | 49er | Rhos | 9 | 8 | 9 |