RYA National Match Racing Championship Grand Finals
by British Keelboat Sailing 23 Oct 07:33 NZDT
18-20 October 2024
Team Absolute retain national match racing championship title
A full-on weekend at London's Queen Mary Sailing Club saw skipper Ted Blowers and Team Absolute winning the RYA National Match Racing Championship Grand Finals for the second year running.
Ten teams competed in RS21 keelboats over the three-day event (18-20 October 2024) with racing getting under way in 10 knots and sunshine after a slightly delayed start waiting for breeze.
With Storm Ashley looming for Sunday, the race team made a determined effort to power through the round robin and a repechage, with a busy Friday and a 9am start on the Saturday.
Sailing through to the semi-finals were Patrick Croghan and Matt Greenfield, each winning seven of their nine races in the round robin, and Ben Tylecote's team with six wins.
But for Blowers it turned into a long day. With his team of Rhos Hawes, Anna Watkins and Zak Bermon, Blowers finished fourth overall in the round robin and had to race for the rest of the Saturday as one of seven teams fighting it out in a repechage.
Blowers took it in his stride and won every race to claim fourth overall again, at the top of the repechage table, to proceed to the semi-finals stage.
With close racing throughout from teams who all qualified for the invitational Grand Finals with outstanding performances at events through the year, 5th to 7th in the repechage was a three-way tie between Oli Hale, Juliette Kennedy and Fred Salter, who each won four of their six races.
Although the Sunday forecast had been for strong winds in London on the skirts of Storm Ashley, with 30 knot gusts on the course, it was possible to complete the schedule with reefs and spinnakers.
In Semi Final 1, Blowers won 2:0 against Croghan, while Semi Final 2 saw Tylecote and Greenfield claiming a race each before Tylecote finished the job by winning the third race, with an unfortunate boat breakage for Greenfield's team contributing to them missing out on a place in the final.
In the petit final, although Croghan had shown promise earlier in the regatta, it wasn't to be his day in the heavier breeze, with Greenfield winning 2-0 to claim third overall on the podium.
Close racing
A long final between Tylecote and Blowers then went to five races: Blowers took the first win but the teams then added alternating points to the scoreline, with incredibly close competition and lots of penalties along the way.
These included a pre-start when Tylecote's transom just touched an exclusion zone near the pumping station - he managed to win the start and offset the penalty while still in the lead but ended up behind on the last run picked up another penalty in contact with Blowers' rudder.
Then in what would become the penultimate match, Blowers was given a double penalty on the startline for not keeping clear and wasn't able to hold the lead. This pushed the teams on into a fifth and final race, which Blowers was able to win to seal the championship.
A delighted Blowers, commenting afterwards on what had not been the easiest regatta for him, said: "Part of the RYA values is getting your hours on the water, we've certainly done that! The competition has been really good in tricky changeable conditions - the first day was super light, the second day was kind of medium and the last day it really came in with the breeze at 20 to 30 knots at times. It's been a great event, very well run, we're just really happy to pull through with the win and we're looking forward to next year!"
British Sailing Team 49er sailor Rhos Hawes, sailing with Team Absolute for the weekend, said it had been a great opportunity alongside his usual campaigning: "It was a fun weekend to get out on the water to do something different but still very relevant to what we do, so it was really good fun and it's a great side to the sport."
Asked whether he thought match racing should this be an essential training for every Olympic hopeful, he added: "Probably not for the other nations!"
Overall Results: (top three)
1st Team Absolute: Ted Blowers, Rhos Hawes, Anna Watkins, Zak Bermon
2nd Ben Tylecote, Matt Wright, David Bromilow, Terry Hacker, Alice Lucy
3rd Matt Greenfield, Peter Bentley, Oliver Bennett, Maria Stanley
Overall results RYA National Match Racing Championship Grand Final 2024
Richard Moxey, Event Director and British Keelboat Sailing Development Manager, said: "Congratulations to Ted on retaining his title for the second year running and well done to all the teams who gave it their all over three days of tough competition. As ever, a massive thank you to all our volunteers too, including our Race Officer David Campbell-James and all the umpires, and to Queen Mary Sailing Club for hosting us."
Next up in the RYA match racing calendar is an exciting new series of six training weekends for sailors who are keen to give it a go for the first time or sharpen their skills ready for next season!
The joint initiative with the Royal Thames Yacht Club will be led by top coach Niall Myant-Best with the first Match Racing Clinic taking place at Queen Mary SC, 1-2 November 2024, and subsequent weekends taking place either at QMSC or Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy.
Find out and book as soon as possible to secure your place at RYA Match Racing Clinics.