Hot Rum Random Pairs Team Racing at Royal Thames Yacht Club - Event 1
by Jack Fenwick 17 Nov 2025 18:21 GMT
Hot Rum Random Pairs Team Racing event 1 © Richard Sawyer
After a summer packed with International Team Racing Events, the Royal Thames Yacht Club's Domestic winter team racing programme got under way with a sellout Hot Rum Random Pairs on Sunday 16th November.
Seasoned team racers joined hot new talent for a day of racing which sees each crew randomly paired against two other crews through as many races as the Volunteer team can provide.
After a quick briefing on shore, the teams headed afloat in the matched Sonars for racing to get under way bang on ten o'clock. First up was James Cunnison paired with Leo Dixon and his team from Royal Dee YC against Tiger Tellwright leading the RTYC Academy Team paired with Tim Gratton, more often found on the mainsheet than the tiller. Some solid team racing tactics from the latter pair saw them secure the win by the finish line for those skippers to take their first wins.
Chased round the course by the second race which saw Ben Gratton paired with Alex Smallwood against Fiona Hampshire and George Haynes, George being more used to Match Racing than Team Racing. A bit of a tussle towards the end of the race allowed Alex and Ben to take their first race wins of the day.
With near perfect conditions, the only thing missing was sunshine but it is November....., the Race Committee was smashing the races in as fast as the sailors could get to the start line. By lunchtime, 18 races had been held and it was Tim Gratton and his team of Catherine Brooke, Rosie Watkins and Arthur Henderson who topped the table undefeated with Alex Smallwood and Tim's brother Ben fighting it out with Fiona Hampshire for the podium places.
The breeze freshened a little throughout the afternoon and the racing got closer and closer as the teams learned quickly how to work with each other. As the racing got tighter, the umpires were called on more and more to settle the disputes with most of the races now in contention all the way to the finish line, one race seeing three boats crossing the line with inches between them.
Solid boat handling from Tim Gratton and team saw them solidify their lead at the top of the table and at the end of the day having raced 16 races they had lost only two of them. The battle for second and third hotted up with Fiona Hampshire getting in to her stride in the afternoon session an important win while paired with Alex Smallwood against Ben Gratton and Leo Dixon made third place more secure and a charge for second a realistic possibility.
A win in race 32 while paired with Tiger Tellwright over Smallwood paired with Dixon saw second place come tantalisingly close but as the light faded, so did Hampshire's hopes of second place with a loss against Tim Gratton paired with Tiger Tellwright. This loss in her final race of the day meant she could only watch on as Smallwood, now tied on 10 wins was paired with George Haynes to take on James Cunnison and Mark Taylor.
A tough battle around the race track saw the teams coming in to mark 3 together, a penalty for Taylor saw Smallwood and Haynes take the lead in to mark 4 and the finish and give Smallwood the win he needed to take second place overall.
A tough fight in the final race of the day so the Royal Thames Academy and the Royal Dee teams paired to take on the on form brothers Tim and Ben Gratton. It was the underdogs who took the final win of the day with 1st and 3rd.
As dusk settled in, the teams headed ashore to pack up and head for prize-giving, each team comparing tales of races won and lost but all revelling in the joy and fatigue of a long day of racing with 16 races for each team.
After the prize-giving, winning helm, Tim Gratton said "It was a really fun day on the water, not sure we've ever done so many races at Queen Mary. Random Pairs is actually quite simple, just make sure one opponent is in last place, we just broke it down like that and tried not to think much more than that. I had a really great team on the boat, they were great at delivering on anything I wanted them to do, even if I didn't give them any warning. Really looking forward to the next one in January."
Full results for Hot Rum 1
Next up for Team Racing at the Thames is Hot Rum 2 on the 18th January and the Mixed+ Random Pairs on the 1st February. Entries for both can be made using the online entry form with earlybird entry closing for Hot Rum 2 at the start of December, get your entries in quick before it too fills up.