UK Team Racing Nationals, March 2014
Spinnaker Sailing Club, Dorset, England
This event is the culmination of the season’s team racing. 24 teams of 6 sailors were entered. The boats used were Fireflies that had been supplied by Spinnaker Sailing Club/ Southampton university and are kept in matched, brightly coloured flights of 6 boats to allow for identification.
Jo Lucas of SolentXtra was the Race Officer in charge of proceedings. In addition SolentXtra was also represnted by Tina Scott on the Start boat; Peter Stuckey and Jane Windsor on the Finish boat and Clare Pittman in the office dealing with schedules and results. Keith Sammons who has assited SolentXtra at events previously was also there. Apart from Jo, team racing was a new experience for SolentXtra members but they picked it up very quickly.
The wind was steady in strength all weekend, if not in direction, and, apart from the occasional hailstorm, the sun shone brightly. On Saturday 100 races were completed with two races being required to be resailed after damage to the supplied boats. Rob Lamb refers to team racing as a ‘sausage factory’ and it certainly felt like that at times. On Sunday the 44 races needed to complete the initial stages were finished by 1pm and just before a 90 degree windshift. The race committee had no alternative other than to relay the entire course so avoiding the infamous Dragon Island. An ironic twist, given that the standard S-shaped team racing course, was reputedly developed to accommodate this island! A repecharge, 2 semi-finals, a 3rd place play-off and a final brought the event to a dramatic close. The first race of the final was abandoned due to a windshift large enough for all boats to fetch the windward mark. In total 162 races were started – almost definitely a SolentXtra record!
Full details of the results of the event can be found on the Yachts and Yachting website.