Royal Corinthian One Designs win the Caudle Cup

Royal Corinthian Yacht Club win the Caudle Cup © Anne Heasley

It has been 12 long years since the Caudle Cup returned to the trophy cabinet at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and finally it has after an epic team race against the Royal Burnham Yacht Club last weekend. For those not familiar with the cup, it was presented in 1960 by Derek Caudle of the RCYC to promote a closer relationship between the RBOD and the RCOD fleets and during that time the Corinthian has only won it 16 times. But revenge, when it finally comes, is sweet!

For the Corinthian team, the RCODs were helmed by the Waples brothers John and Justin; Rob Campbell (usually in Dragons) and Micky Wright (from the Squib fleet) helmed the RBODs, not forgetting the fact Campbell is an acknowledged expert in this boat! Light winds forced the committee boat to cut the number of races from three to two. The boats were sent off in two fleets with four RBODs starting first.

The Corinthan team won both RCOD races, but not without incident, and the teams sailing RBODs drew. This led to the series being won three races to one by the RCYC. There was a minor panic following the first race when Justin Waples managed to nudge his bows across the line to finish third, inching ahead of Paul Taylor (RBYC), but the whole boat did not cross the line. The Royal Burnham team suggested he had not technically finished the race, but a quick leaf through the rule book on our return reminded us that a boat does not have to cross the line in its entirety to finish, as long as a part of it does.

There was some excellent team racing with, for the Corinthian team, Wright sailing his opponent across the river and Justin holding up the opposition at the windward mark allowing his brother to slip through. Now we have to prepare for next year and I sense we are due a winning streak.