2016 National Keelboat League Finals 22 Jul 2016

RCYC gained a wild card entry for the National Keelboat League Finals hosted by Royal Thames Yacht Club in Cowes, held over the weekend of 16 & 17 July – and duly sent a team consisting of Jamie Mears, Malcolm Hutchings, Duncan Grindley and Tom Jayasekera.

The event consisted of 22 approximately 15 minute races held in a fleet of six J70 Sportboats. Eleven teams took part in the round-robin format and we managed a credible 7th place overall.

Considering our team had never sailed together or even stepped aboard a J70 before Saturday morning, we managed to have the highs of winning two of our fleet races, but also the lows of falling foul of the on-water jury. Any penalty taken or small mistake was costly in this style of short course windward-leeward racing.

Would we do this again given the chance? Absolutely yes – the racing was fast, frantic and great fun. Run slickly by the RTYC, we should definitely attempt to continue taking part in next years League.