Global Team Racing Regatta 2023 hosted by the Royal Thames Yacht Club - Day 2
by Royal Thames Yacht Club 22 Sep 2023 21:17 BST
20-23 September 2023
Day 2 of the Global Team Racing Regatta hosted by the Royal Thames Yacht Club was a day of two halves.
Light winds with massive shifts dogged the sailors and Race Committee alike. Undeterred though, every team came out fighting hard from the first race of the day all the way to the end. Races were tight, with no race ever over until the finish line, including one race which pushed back so hard, it ended up finishing with the race that started four minutes later all together, pretty spectacular on a finish line barely big enough for four boats.
By mid afternoon, the breeze began to build and boat handling began to become more important to the teams. Being able to spin a Sonar through almost a full circle and know that you will miss your opponents by mere inches kept the umpires bust throughout the day (not everyone missed every time...).
Despite the challenging conditions, the Race Committee completed an impressive 33 races to finish the day on race 60.
Jon Redding, Rear Commodore Sail at the host club who spent the day mark laying joked that the hail stones couldn't dampen the spirits of the racers. When the wind settled in the conditions were just stunning. It was amusing to see some great racing coupled with some pretty howling, unforced mistakes, including one team who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory just inches from the finish line.
Andrew Person, one of the skippers from Newport Harbor YC said "It was great team racing out there, the wind was never a factor in winning or losing. Everyone was out there competing, every single team is a really good team. We had some fun brawls, close losses but everyone was just smiling out there"
Murry Hampshire, one of the skippers from the leading Royal Thames YC puts their success down to a medium amount of luck, good boat speed, and making their moves clinical. Highlight of the day for them though was the race against Newport Harbour Yacht Club which had a finish that could only be described as carnage.
Racing concludes tomorrow with more round robin racing with Semi-finals starting around lunch time to decide who will join Newport Harbor YC, St Francis YC, and Royal Thames YC as winners of the Global Team Racing Regatta.
Full results available here.