Royal Southern AC entry update

Rock stars join Sinergia 40 crew

Dickie's Yacht Sales, the new Sinergia 40 yacht in the Royal Southern Yacht Club Admiral's Cup team, have confirmed the addition of former GBR Challenge helmsman Andy Beadsworth and Amer Sports Two skipper Lisa McDonald to their crew. Andy and Lisa join a strong crew including David Howlett, Duncan McDonald, Nigel Biggs and Neil Mackley, all of whom have extensive experience at the highest level.

As part of their continuing preparations for the Admiral's Cup, Dickies Yacht Sales joined the Royal Southern's racing fleet for the Club's Mid-Summer Regatta on the Solent on Sunday 15 June. Skipper Nigel Biggs commented, "we've been working the boat up for the last few weeks and thought this was a good opportunity to support sailing at our own Club. Whilst the conditions were very light and shifty, they were no different to those we can expect at some time during the Admiral's Cup, so to practice in a racing situation was worthwhile from our point of view."

Royal Southern Yacht Club Commodore Colin Hall commented, "Nigel and crew are no slouches as their first place, first time out, shows. Their light airs speed and the way they picked their way through the shifty conditions were impressive".

The team will continue their preparation for the Admiral's Cup by competing in this coming weekend's Round the Island Race. Whilst not expecting to be particularly competitive in the IRC class due to it's IMS optimisation, the boat continues to be the only IMS 600 boat racing in the UK at present.

In the big boat class, Nick Hewson's Farr 52, Volvo for Life - Team Tonic earlier won the Warsash Spring Series for the third year running and was second in the IRC Nationals in their class only to the new Aera. From this consistently successful base, Nick, skipper Jeremy Robinson and crew are continuing to work up their campaign to a successful conclusion.