Royal Thames Yacht Club retain the Carmela Cup
by Sarah Hornby 21 Jan 2014 18:01 GMT
18-19 January 2014
Eight teams arrived on a dry Saturday with 12-14 knots of wind. The forecast had been for rain so this was a good start.
Racing commenced at 10am and the race programme proceeded at a gallop with David Arnold leading his team of race offices efficiently. Chris Simon led an excellent team of umpires to ensure racers stayed within the law.
At the end of day one the first round robin 28 races had been completed by 15:30. One of the competitors complained that there was too much racing - which was taken as a compliment. At this time of year there can be either too much or too little wind.
RTYC were unbeaten on 7.5 points (half a point deducted as a result of a racing incident with Itchenor) and Southampton Male Voice choir were in second on 7 points. The top 4 teams would go into Sunday's semi-finals and this meant the race management team had to get the rule book and calculators out. The next three teams were on 4 points and trying to separate them. They were eventually separated out with Itchenor Sailing Club and Oxford University going into the semis and Serpentine going into the Silver League.
On Sunday glorious sunshine and a 10 knot breeze greeted the teams. Plymouth had the best day winning all three races in the silver league moving them up to finish 5th overall. Royal Northern and Clyde won two moving them up to 6th.
The semi-finals commenced with RTYC and Itchenor sailing Club going through to the final. The petit final was between Southampton Male Voice Choir and Oxford University with Southampton winning 2:0. Oxford University would however win the Brixham Ladies Trophy for being the top placed university team at the Carmela Cup.
The final was very close Itchenor Sailing Club taking the first race with a steady one-two combination. However, Royal Thames came back to win the next two races and retain the trophy.