Last chance to enter the Royal Lymington Cup

New pontoons at Royal Lymington Yacht Club for 2016 © www.sportography.tv

This weekend (July 16/17) some of the best sailors on the South coast will be racing to win the 2016 Royal Lymington Cup, a two-boat team, IRC team inter-club championship (for an IRC rating band of 0.95 to 1.10 TC) hosted by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club (RLymYC) in the open waters of Christchurch Bay. Ten boats, five high profile teams with top class competitive crews will battle it out to win the Cup for their Club.

The regatta is support by local Lymington estate agents Denisons, a market leader in property sales, lettings and auctions, renowned in the area for selling some of the finest waterside, country and town properties in Hampshire and Dorset. Principal and founder of Denisons, Andy Denison said: "The winning team in the Royal Lymington Cup will have its place in history. As a local firm with our heart in sailing, we are delighted to be involved and supporting the Cup and the Royal Lymington Yacht Club."

Teams

Peter Morton owner of JND35 "Salvo" and winner of both the IRC National Championships and Cowes Week Class 3 2015 and David Franks, owner of JPK 10.10 "Strait Dealer", winner of Class 4 at Cowes Week will compete for the Royal Thames Yacht Club.

Adam Gosling, owner of "Yes!" a JPK1080 will race alongside RORC Admiral Andrew McIrvine in his First 40, "La Response" for the Royal Yacht Squadron.

Representing Poole Yacht Club is skipper Ian Millard helming Jim McGregor's chartered "Premier Flair" (Elan 410) and yacht designer, Steve Thompson racing "Eluga II" (Elan 333).

Challenging for Royal Lymington Yacht Club will be Stuart Duffin in Grand Surprise, "Flying Boat" racing along with "Ding Dong" a Stewart 37 owned and skippered by Chris Rustom. RlymYC's second team is Martyn Kemp with "JAK" (J105) and David McGough in "Just So" (J109).

The Cup Race Officer, Roger Wilson, is set to provide some challenging races in conditions that are looking good at this stage; Force 3 SW winds forecast for both days in the Bay. Of the racing, Roger Wilson said: "We expect to get at least four races in on Saturday 16th. With this level of competition there will be a lot of close racing with yachts having to really focus on sailing well to gain the advantage as few people have much experience of the sailing area."

The Royal Lymington Cup was last raced for in 1999. Steeped in yachting history it will, for the first time, be awarded to the winning club rather than the skipper. The name of the winning yacht club will sit alongside some of the world's most famous sailors who have won the Cup when it was presented for the match racing series run for many years by the RLymYC.

Entries will be accepted up to the 15th July. For further information contact: Kirsty Timmis, Event Manager, Royal Lymington Yacht Club Tel: 01590671687 or

About The Cup

What became the Royal Lymington Cup match race event was started in the mid-Seventies by a group led by Californian sailor and Lymington yacht builder Bill Green in open admiration for and imitation of the Long Beach YC's Congressional Cup, then well-established as a training patch for would-be America's Cup helmsmen and tacticians. Indeed, for the first few years of its existence the competition was simply known as 'The Lymington Congressional Cup'.

The name was changed when the present trophy was donated. The competition attracted not only the best match racers of the day but also the top international officials and the Royal Lymington Cup was amongst the first to have on-the-water observers who evolved into the on-the-water umpires now used to decide boat-v-boat protests and to award penalties on the spot rather than having matches re-scored and on-the-water results reversed late at night after lengthy protest hearings.

Among the winners of the Royal Lymington Cup are Thierry Peponnet, Marc Bouet, Sir Russell Coutts, Peter Isler Rod Davies, Chris Law, Chris Dickson, Peter Gilmour, Iain Murray and, the skipper whose name appears most often on the trophy, Harold Cudmore.

Event website: rlymyc.org.uk/RoyalLymingtonCup.aspx