New UK match racing champion

Paul Campbell-James wins out in Weymouth

The success of the Campbell-James family continued yesterday with Paul C-J, 20, defeating Ian Williams 2-1 in the finals of the RYA National Matchracing Championships in Weymouth.

15 teams took part in the event. These were divided into two - one group of eight and another of seven - for the preliminary round robins, the top four from each going on to form the gold group, racing another round robin.

At the conclusion of this former Oxford graduate Christian Hamilton was first, on five wins along with Paul Campbell-James. Ian Williams was third, Mark Campbell-James fourths followed by Simon Shaw - all on four wins.

In the top spot Hamilton was allowed to chose his opponent for the semis and picking the younger Campbell-James, was duly dispatched. In the other semi-final match Ian Williams beat the elder Campbell-James.

"It was quite light air, with very shifty wind," Ian Williams described the conditions. "It often ended up with a biased start line, so it was very important to win the start and then not to make any mistakes with chosing the right side of the beat."

The final yesterday was a lively affair. "There were hundreds of penalties," said Paul Campbell-James of the racing. "In the final in the first race, we clashed rigs with Ian. It was quite a bang." Despite the clash the match was tight with no more than two boat lengths separating them, until Williams picked up a penalty.

In the second race of the final the form evened up as Campbell-James ploughed into the committee boat, allowing Williams to get away from the outset. In the decider Ian Williams was around three seconds early for the line and had to restart, allowing Campbell-James and his Helly Hansen-sponsored team of Graeme Sunderland. Nick Hutton and Nick Wilcox to get ahead and gain the National title.

From here Paul Campbell-James returns to university while Ian Williams plans to continue to work his way up the ISAF match racing rankings by sailing in the Berlin Match Race in early November followed by another grade 2 event two weeks later in Portugal.

"We did well in those two last year – we got a second and a first and that is what started off our rise up the ranking," Williams told The Daily Sail. "We are now a year down the line and the key for us is to get another good year’s results to solidify the ranking and to try and get the place at next year’s Worlds again."