Teams announced

Line up for British entries in Rolex Commodore's Cup

The 2006 British Team Commodores' Cup trials saw some impressive racing from all of the boats entered. The inshore series, hosted by the Royal Southern was particularly successful with many of the boats finishing neck and neck out on the water and on the score sheet.

"It is pleasing to see that the level of competition has gone up in recent years." Dave Atkinson, a member of the selection committee commented. "I am encouraged to see so many British sailors so passionate about representing their country in this prestigious event."

With such a hot fleet, selecting the teams that would represent Great Britain at the 2006 Rolex Commodores' Cup proved to be the most challenging selection decision the committee has faced yet. Due to close results, the Selection Committee decided to review the final positioning of each boat in each race, in a process similar to count-back, to see which boats finished with the most top three places.

Iain Macdonald Smith, Chairman of the Selection Committee explained, "As selectors we always had the responsibility to consider the results, but were not bound to choose all or any of the top six boats. After close consideration of the results we decided to select based on performances in all of the races, not on overall point score. We believe we made the best decision after looking at the results in depth.

"I realised that all the teams entered were deeply passionate about getting selected, so after finalising the list of teams I personally contacted each boat that participated in the trials so that they were aware of the outcome before it became public knowledge.

"Unfortunately we were unable to select all of the boats that took part in the trials but with only nine slots to fill from the RYA Trials we had to choose the boats that we believed would consistently produce the best results at the Rolex Commodores' Cup 2006."

The Rolex Commodores' Cup 2006 will be held in Cowes, Isle of Wight, 25 June-2 July.

British Commodores' Cup Teams

Blue Team (Scotland)
Class 1 Excabyte III David Cullen
Class 2 Absolutely II Kelly/ Bramall/ Plummer
Class 3 Salamander XVIII John Corsen

White Team
Class 1 Fair Do's VII John Shepherd
Class 2 Maverick Dominic Chappell
Class 3 Quokka Peter Rutter

Red Team
Class 1 Bear of Britain Kit Hobday
Class 2 Software Mistress Ian Maclean
Class 3 No Doubt Chris and Hannah Neve

Black Team
Class 1 Chernikeef Peter Harrison
Class 2 Mankie Jack Pringle
Class 3 Civils with Flair Jim Macgregor

What's your view? Have the best boats been selected?