Juliette Kennedy claims second RYA Match Racing Series victory

RYA Match Racing Series Q5 at Queen Mary © Patrick Croghan

The penultimate round of this year's RYA Match Racing Series saw Ireland's Juliette Kennedy claiming victory at London's Queen Mary Sailing Club.

Six teams duelled for honours in RS21s and for Kennedy it was her second win of the series just two weeks after winning the RYA Marlow Women's Match Racing Championship.

Day 1 of the RYA National Match Racing Series Q5 event (28-29 September 2024) saw glorious blue skies and a gentle breeze. The competition started with a double round robin where the teams would each sail against each other twice in the RS21 keelboats.

It was a tough start to the day for one of the newest teams to the match racing circuit. Toby Bush, Max Carter, Charlie Bailey and Maryam Ali had flown down from Strathclyde at short notice but was disqualified with a black flag with three minutes to go before their start.

Luckily the team saw the funny side, describing the 'holy trinity' of penalties that led to their black flag: crossing their entry line too soon, having the wrong coloured flag displayed, and not entering the start box. They managed to recover well, winning two tight races - one by a matter of centimetres.

Another team to suffer a disqualification, for a different trifecta of penalties, was that of Ollie Leeson, Jonathan Redfern, Thalya Ambroziak and Alex Judge. They struggled early on but managed to find some form later in the day, picking up some valuable points.

The race committee made good progress, eventually finishing 12 flights of racing despite needing four attempts at Flight 6 when the wind would not cooperate. Large shifts kept the mark-layers busy and the abandonment flag also had a workout.

On day 2 the breeze settled and strengthened, providing the perfect conditions for match racing.

Leo Yates, Olly Mayo, Erin Pank and Sara Goujon put up a valiant fight but struggled with their downwind boat handling. Winning two of their 10 races was sadly not enough to keep them in the competition and they bowed out alongside team Bush at the completion of the round robin stage.

Semi finals

The runaway leaders - Oli Hale, Amber Hale, Ben Simmons, Matt Hitt and Tom Cluett - had not dropped a single point in the round robin and were looking sharp. They faced the 4th placed team of Ollie Leeson and co and managed to win 2-0 after a couple of less-than-ideal starts. They did showcase an impressive composure, however, whilst their opposition showcased their keel with an equally impressive broach.

The other semi-final was between Juliette Kennedy's team from Cambridge (Callum Farnden, Olivia Jacklin, Mattis Prince, Kate MacAdorey) and Cyrus Ledru's team from Imperial (Matt Wright, Yipping Lin, Julien Fung). Both of these teams finished the previous stage on 6 wins and 4 losses and it was anyone's guess who would come out on top. In the end team Kennedy came through, winning both starts and controlling each race to book their place in the final.

Close final

In the grand final between team Hale and team Kennedy, all three races were required. Hale won the first race with an audacious hook in the dying seconds of the pre-start and putting a penalty on the other boat as well as forcing them over the start line.

Kennedy was clearly not phased, quickly levelling the score at 1-1 after locking their opponents out to the right hand side of the start line. The final deciding race also went the way of team Kennedy, again winning the start and controlling the rest of the race to seal the overall event win.

Winning helm Kennedy said: "We came into the event without expectation, having never raced the other teams before and with little RS21s experience. Our intention was to have fun sailing for Callum's birthday (main trimmer supreme), so we kept the pressure off which I think helped us hold our nerve in the finals. Luckily the win sufficed instead of the birthday present we forgot to buy Callum. Huge creds also have to go to Oli Hale and team for 100% wins in the round robin and some tight races!"

Overall results: www.matchracingresults.com/2024/rya-qualifier-5

Event director Patrick Croghan said: "A massive thank you as always to all the volunteers who made the event possible, Queen Mary Sailing Club for hosting and all of the sailors for providing a fantastic quality of racing."

The final qualifier of the RYA Match Racing Series 2024 takes place this weekend (5-6 October) at the Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club in Scotland, where teams will be competing in Sonars for the Ceilidh Cup.

The top teams from each event in the series receive an invitation to compete at the RYA National Match Racing Grand Finals, 18-20 October 2024 at Queen Mary Sailing Club. Find out more at RYA Match Racing.

RYA Match Racing Series Q5 at Queen Mary - photo © Patrick Croghan