On the 13th of April, a team of 8 headed down to Queen Mary Sailing Club to compete in the 2024 Carmela Cup, hosted by RTYC. The RYA Two Boat Keelboat Team Racing Championship was sailed in Sonars with the use of spinnakers. Most members of the team hadn’t raced in sonars before, and none had team raced with spinnakers, so this was an exciting prospect.
The team were greeted on Saturday morning with delightful weather, about 20 degrees and glorious sunshine (Many members of the team looked a little red by the end of the day!). A steady breeze of 14-18knots covered the racecourse, leading to some great sailing and the occasional sketchy moment with the pole.
Racing kicked off with Cambridge in the first race against Burham. This was a close race, however, was lost with the team adjusting to the different format of racing and downwind kite work. Team racing with kites proved harder than expected! A crew swap was conducted halfway through the day to balance out the crew weights, as it was noticed that one boat was significantly lighter than the other. An exciting race with Cindies was had, with Blake sneaking in room inside the 2 opponent boats at mark 3 but then unfortunately lost out on the beat.
The team struggled to win any races, placing them in silver going into day 2. It was a chill Saturday night, with everyone super exhausted from racing.
Sunday brought lighter wind, more patchy and shifty, but still lovely sunshine. Each race, the team got closer and closer to a win, being in a winning combination further around the course each time. Unfortunately races were lost, including losing from spins about 20 metres from the line. Sadly spins were also acquired in the race against RTYC, which had been a good first beat and a strong position around mark 2.
The team were sad not to be able to race their biggest rivals Imperial University in the last race of the silver round robin. They were convinced that this would have been the one win of the weekend. A funny joke with Cyrus from Imperial, “are you racing?”, was a highlight of the day.
Overall it was concluded that although disappointing results wise, it was an incredible learning experience and maximum fun was had.
Congratulations to Elmside Neighbours for retaining their title from last year.
The 2024 Carmela Cup team:
Boat 1: Ellen Morley (Helm), Mattis Prince (Main), Magnus Handley (Jib), Lizzy Linsdell (Bow)
Boat 2: Blake Tudor (Helm), Will Adler (Main), Charlotte Watson (Jib), Luke Bligh (Bow)
