Team GBR head for WA

British crew en route to the ISAF Team Racing World Championship

Great Britain will be gunning to continue the country’s proud Worlds medal-winning tradition when the 2009 ISAF Team Racing World Championships get underway in Western Australia on Saturday, 31 January.

Gandia, Spain played host to a double British celebration at the last Championships in 2007 as Team GBR3 proudly claimed the inaugural World Under 21 crown while Team GBR2 landed a fantastic silver medal behind the USA.

Matt Findlay and Tom Hebbert, who were part of that medal-winning GBR2 sextet, are once again in the RYA Team GBR line up for this year’s Championships taking place at the Royal Freshwater Bay YC and South of Perth YC in Perth.

They both feature as helms in GBR1 – The Lions – with Steve Tylecote, a four-time Team Racing Worlds medallist, completing the team’s helming compliment.

Crewing for Findlay is two-time Endeavour Trophy champion Toby Lewis, who won bronze alongside Tylecote at the 2005 Worlds in the USA, while Joanne Bailey and Sally Wilson make up the Lions outfit.

GBR2 – West Kirby Hawks – is also steeped in Worlds experience with 2001 bronze medallist duo Dominic Johnson and Deborah Steele once again pairing up and joined by 2007 veterans Andy Cornah, Hamish Walker, Ben Field and Tom Foster.

West Kirby will also be flying the flag in the Under 21 event with the club’s Youth team – featuring Will Shepherd, Emma Lombard, Cameron Douglas, Sophie Shepherd, Owain Matthews and Jemima Riley – looking to retain the World crown for Britain for the second successive Championships.

West Kirby Youth enjoyed the perfect preparation for the Worlds with victory at the 2008 Twiname/RYA Youth Team Racing Championships, Oxford last November.

Unlike in normal fleet racing where the aim of the game is to finish first past the post, team racing involves teams of six sailors in three boats going head-to-head against another team of three boats to try to get the best overall points score for the team.

As a result it is a true test of a crews’ boat handling skills, decision-making abilities and tactical nous.

The 2009 World Championships will be contested in Pacer dinghies with racing beginning on Monday 2 February with the Under 21 Championship scheduled to be decided on Wednesday 5 February before the showdown for the main prize on Sunday 8 February.

Bruce Hebbert, Chairman of the RYA Team Racing Committee, believes the British teams are well primed to bring back silverware once again. He said: “Selected in September the teams have used every weekend to polish their skills for what is arguably the most tactically demanding sailing discipline. They have spent much time training in Feva dinghies over the winter with Oakham School, Sevenoaks School and the Pacer Class at Bough Beech SC all generously supporting the campaign.

“Coming off the water from training at Rutland thick in ice sheets with feet and hands frozen and raw you have to admire the determination of our sailors. The Swan River in the height of the Australian summer hopefully will be somewhat different!”

The World Championships mark the peak of a triangle for RYA Team Racing in the past 12 months. No fewer than 74 sailors attended RYA Team Racing Development Training at Bough Beech in December with 24 of these sailors now attending selected training to provide for future GBR teams.

Coaching training is another big success story with no less than three courses successfully run this year while some 300 youngsters took part at November’s Twiname/RYA Junior & Youth Team Racing Championships. The 2009 event will again be staged at Oxford on 17 – 18 October.