Late surge by London Castaways secures the win at UK Match Racing Qualifier 1
by Jack Fenwick 24 Feb 16:55 GMT
21-22 February 2026
UK Match Racing Qualifier 1 hosted by Royal Thames YC at Queen Mary SC © Richard Sawyer
The weekend of 21/22 February saw eight teams match racing in the Royal Thames Sonars at Queen Mary to secure their spot in the Autumn's National Match Racing Championship Grand Final.
Big gusts rolled through the course through the day challenging the teams boat handling as well their tactics with late drops leading to more than one spinnaker dragging round the keel. With a double round robin scheduled for the weekend it was rapid fire racing for all of the teams. While many of the early races were tight, it was Hamish Taylor and his team that finished Round Robin 1 undefeated with the lower places hotly contested.
Will Bradley was tied for second with Julian Fung on 67% wins and Oli Hale and Jack Woolterton tied for fourth on 50% wins.
Sunday saw slightly less wind overall but with bigger differences in the highs and lows, covering was critical as a small split on the beat could, and did, result in lead changes. Hamish Taylor continued his winning ways from day 1 and finished the second round robin still undefeated. The fight for the remaing Semi-final places was tight with four teams all within reach of those places.
Not until the final flight had finished were the places secured. Will Bradley, sailing with his father, Tom Yates, and his father, secured second place in stage one with 8 wins and four losses, their win in the last match against Jack Woolterton putting them over the top and dropping Jack and his team of Lucy Street, James Curtis and Tim Evans just out of the top four.
A win for Julian Fung against Oli Hale in the second Round Robin was enough to place him third ahead of Oli and the stage was set for the Semi-finals.
Race one of the semi-finals saw Hamish Taylor continue his winning streak against Oli Hale with Julian Fung taking their first victory against Will Bradley of the weekend which they shortly followed up with a second win to grab their spot in the final. In semi-final 1 however, an enthusiastic team lead by Oli grabbed control of their second match of the semi to level the score.
Another tight battle ensued in the deciding match but despite a strong fight, Hale and team were ahead at the finish and they too had secured their place in the final.
In the petit-final, first win went to Will Bradley but Hamish Taylor regained his composure from the early stages to take the next two races and grab third place overall.
The final saw Oli Hale take the first race in a relatively straightforward win. Julian Fung came out swinging in the second match to level the score and with daylight fading, the schedule was shortened to first to two wins and the stage was set for a sudden death decider.
A penalty for Oli Hale saw them having to fight extra hard throughout the race but on the final run it was looking good. Sailing outside the lay line for the Committee Boat they had Julian and his team blocked from gybing and were headed for the wall to offload the penalty. Julian started trying to gain some separation but wiggled too hard and broached out to the left.
Taking advantage of the Chaos, Hale dropped his kite to spin in to the penalty turn but watched as Fung just crossed his bow towards the finish line. Nothing was certain yet though as Fung not only didn't have his jib up but his kite was flapping around the top of the mast. Hale closed to within millimetres of an overlap on Fung and the ability to push them away from the finish but it was never to be and Julian squeezed round the front to take the win at the boat end.
After the Prizegiving, Julian Fung thanked the volunteers for their support on the water and all of the other teams for a hard fought weekend of Match Racing. He said, "We got off to a bit of a rocky start in the round robin stage. Obviously Hamish had come out with 100% wins and was the one to beat and we'd had a few narrow losses. As the breeze picked up though I think our crew and boat hdling really showed, we were gybing well and that helped for attacking and defending on the run.
"We were in our stride for the Semis and it was good to beat Will Bradley 2-0 as he'd beaten us in both our round robin races so that was a real confidence boost. We had a really close final against Oli and obviously the highlight was us finishing and winning the event with our kite wrapped round the rig. Overall, it was a great event, fantastic fun and we can't wait for the finals."
Full results for the event can be found at: www.matchracingresults.com/2026/rya-qualifier-1
Anyone wanting to get involved in Match Racing, or earn their spot at the National Match Racing Championship Grand Final should get signed up for the Rory Cheetham Cup, co-hosted with Exeter University with full details at: www.matchracingresults.com/2026/rory-cheetham-cup/noticeboard.php