USA and Great Britain continue to battle at Team Racing Worlds

Published on July 22nd, 2015

Rutland, Great Britain (July 22, 2015) – On the third day of the 2015 ISAF Team Racing World Championships (July 20-24) at Rutland Water it was the teams from Great Britain and USA who were fighting it out at the top of the leaderboard.

Some 18 teams from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan and USA, plus an ASAF (Asian Sailing Federation) team comprising Indian, Malaysian and Hong Kong sailors are competing.

Sitting atop the standings is reigning World champions West Kirby Hawks who are tied with team Ladies and Gentlemen of the USA, both on 24 wins.

Andy Cornah of the Hawks said: “We had a pretty windy day yesterday and it’s lighter today, so it’s good to have a variety of conditions. We’ve been pretty rusty but feel like we are steadily cranking it up. With a bad forecast for Friday it looks like the event may all hinge on tomorrow so a big day of potentially gold league racing and knockouts.”

Right behind the top two with 23 wins were current UK national champions the Royal Forth Hoosiers, and on 21 wins BYOB (Bristol Young and Old Boys from Bristol University Alumni). The British teams were slugging it out for the second and third slots with the USA teams Team Shread and Days of Thunder on 23 and 20 wins.

Next down the leaderboard was Ireland on 16 wins very closely followed by Bermuda on 15. It is Bermuda’s first time at a Team Racing World Championships and they are living up to the pre-event words of team captain Emily Nagel when she said: “We are eager to show the world that Bermudians can hold their own not only in fleet racing but team racing as well.”

Emily added today: “This is a fantastic event. I am really excited to be here with the Bermuda Team, especially as Bermuda has never entered before. It is great to be back here at Rutland Sailing Club, where I learnt to team race with Oakham School. The sailing conditions are great, the racing very competitive, and we are hoping to make Bermuda proud.”

The leading youth (under 19) teams were GBR Y1 on 12 wins and USA Y1 on 10 wins. Magdalen College School, Oxford, Sevenoaks School, Kent and West Kirby Sailing Club on the Wirral make up the three British youth teams.

The top nine teams will now advance into the Gold League to keep their chances of a medal alive. After the top six slots filled by USA and GBR, also qualifying are BER1, IRL1 and AUS1.

Based on Friday’s forecast in and around Rutland, ISAF’s Race Officials and the regatta organisers have made the decision to complete the regatta on Thursday. That means the Gold and Silver Leagues will continue as planned, but with the added addition of the semi finals and finals taking place in an action packed finale.

Event website – Results – Team rosters – Photos

Report by Michael Haigh, RYA Regional Communicator – East Region