Spinnaker All-Stars shine

At this weekend's Firefly class team racing championship at West Kirby Sailing Club

The RNVR (Firefly class team racing championship) was competed for over the weekend of 20-21 November at West Kirby Sailing Club, Britain's spiritual home of team racing. 14 teams took up the challenge, including four from Ireland. A full round robin was sailed in cold light winds on Saturday and Sunday morning, giving all teams 13 races against the varied opposition, 91 races in total. On Saturday evening West Kirby Sailing Club laid on a welcome hot dinner and disco.

Spinnaker emerged from the league unbeaten. The decision was made to cut to a knockout stage commencing with quarter finals. All four quarter finals were decided in two races, Spinnaker despatched Royal St George YC, New Forest Pirates beat Hilbre Highlanders, West Kirby overcame George Knights and Royal Thames YC defeated Imperial Poona.

Both semis were also decided in two races. Spinnaker beat West Kirby 1,2,3 in both their races. Royal Thames lost both of their races but came close to beating New Forest Pirates in both.

The final was another episode in the long running battle between the rivals, Spinnaker and Pirates. Both teams represented GBR at last year's world championships and both were finalists at this year's Wilson Trophy, on those occasions Spinnaker took the lead. However Pirates have won this year's national championships and the Oxford Magnum only the previous weekend.

In the first race of the final Wakefield/Saunderson (Spinnaker) won the start and led the race with a winning 1,4,5 combination. The Pirates in 2,3,6 slowed the race on the offwind legs and attacked on the final beat. Initially the Pirates did a great job of splitting/balancing the pairs to get Hudson/Heeley (Pirates) out of last. However, Tylecote/Wilson (Spinnaker) slipped past their marker and Spinnaker went 1-0 up.

In the second race Hudson/Heeley (Pirates) and Johnson/Heeley (Pirates) sneaked away and held their lead until the finish squaring the series 1-1.

In the third and final race Tylecote/Wilson (Spinnaker) took the lead, but the Pirates consolidated to a safe 2,3,4 combination with some nifty upwind sailing. Tylecote/Wilson went to work at the leeward mark and successfully slowed the fleet although they did concede 1st. Spinnaker were momentarily in a precarious 2,5,6 on the bottom reach. However Greenland/Boreham and Wakefield/Saunderson (Spinnaker) punched through to gain 2,3,5 by the leeward mark. Spinnaker were now leading two of the three pairs. The three pairs remained split for the duration of the beat and Spinnaker came home victorious by the narrowist of margins.

Results:
1st Spinnaker All Stars: Steve Tylecote, Sally Wilson, Nigel Wakefield, Emily Saunderson, John Greenland, Damian Boreham,
2nd New Forest Pirates: Stuart Hudson, Emma Heeley, Owen Modral, Clare Short, Dom Johnson, Jenny Heeley.
3rd Royal Thames YC
4th West Kirby SC
5th George Knights (IRL)
6th Imperial Poona
7th Hilbre Highlanders
8th Royal St George YC (IRL)
9th West Kirby Trilogy
10th Big In Japan (IRL)
11th National Firefly Association
12th Sheffield University
13th West Kirby Wannabes
14th Trinity College Dublin (IRL)