RCYC wins CCC 50th Anniversary Team Trophy 15 Aug 2015
RCYC have won the Cowes Combined Clubs 50th Anniversary Team Trophy at Cowes Week.
What? How? Teams of three boats from any club that is recognised by a national authority are eligible; the team's score is the aggregate of the individual regatta scores of the member boats. Our team was made up of Lady Penelope (winners of the Squib Class with 30 entries), Aeolus (winners of the RS Elite Class with 19 entries) and Helmut Shöing II (fifth in the Squib Class).
Jono Brown helming Aeolus – along with parental crew David and Lyn – followed up their victory at the 2015 RS Elite national championships by winning their class at Cowes Week, against the largest RS Elite fleet Cowes has seen. Although Ossie Stewart in More T Vicar won the Southern Area Championships held over the first four days, Jono's storming performance over the last three days (with two bullets and a second) ensured a successful defence of their title.
In the Squibs, Malcolm Hutchings and Andy Ramsey's Lady Penelope has been almost untouchable for the past few years. However, for the first part of this week, another RCYC boat, Nigel and Jack Grogan's Helmut Shöing ll, made their mark by winning the first two races and finishing third in the next one. However, the Grogans started prematurely on Friday and were therefore forced to count an 18th place they picked up on Wednesday.
As ever, it was consistency that paid, and Lady Penelope finished as class leaders with a day to spare. “We are delighted to have won our class for the fifth year in a row, particularly as we did it with a race to spare,” says Hutchings. “As we have learnt in the past, doing well at Cowes Week is all about consistency. It was by no means easy though, given the strength of competition within the fleet, as well as some new faces, including the Rileys on Brimstone, and the Grogans. The conditions were also tricky this year, probably more tricky than I’ve ever known but that is all part of the challenge, and the reason we enjoy competing at Cowes Week so much.”
And if RCYC winning the Team Trophy wasn't enough, our Dragon super-crew Katie Cole was part of the winning Dragon team aboard Ecstatic, along with owner and helm Eric Williams, and fellow crew member Joanna Richardson (AKA Old man and two very skilled lady crew)…
Go Team RCYC!