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A honeyed view of Yawl Team Racing 2009 Home and Away Team racing matches took place at Topsham SC on 13 June and at Newton Ferrers’ Yealm YC on 26 September.TSC V’s YYC Ed Williams-Hawkes  Two races at each venue with a decider if all equal. Topsham provided 3 red and 3 other colour yawls. YYC Team of 6 arrived under the Captaincy of Tim Pettit. TSC team are led by their not now so secret weapon, ex-undergraduate Captain of Cambridge Uni Racing Team (we have since promoted him to Professor). The contest works something like this - Captains toss to decide which boats they use for the first race with the teams swapping boats with the other team before the second race. Normal point scoring and 5-4-1 starts. A few different rules such as not necessary to gybe immediately at a mark and only a 2-hull zone. A race is won by the team with the least points; so, a 1st + a 2 or 3rd + anything but a DQ wins; and many other combinations; but the Professor’s guidance is to imagine the 6 boat fleet as opposing ‘pairs’ and if your team is ahead in 2 of the 3 pairings your team wins the race. Strategy (the grand plan before the start) is a factor but more so is that of tactics (“when the ‘Strategy’ is to drain the lake and the workers are down to knee height and being eaten by piranha, ‘Tactics’ become the name of the game!). One of my favourite Frank Bethwaite quotes is “All tactics degrade strategy” but with team racing this is not true. It can be as much about sailing slowly (or stopping or going backwards!) as sailing individually to win. Both teams had some master class observations of Prof ‘MadassaHattersley’ and Tim ’Dragon’ Pettit doing their stuff. The ‘Turn Trap’ (waiting on the edge of the 2 hull zone for the opposition to enter at heir peril) and the ‘Pass Back’ (2 friendly team boats going to windward, with another team boat between them, allowing the blanketed middle boat to be passed by the leeward boat).  Both teams fought hard around 500 metre triangles and Topsham scrapped through with 2 wins and with fine sailing conditions and sunshine. TSC arrived for their Away match hearing stories of lots of YYC team racing practices and spotting a few new faces. 3 light blue and 3 other colour yawls for each team. Windward leeward sausage courses. We lost the toss and we lost the first race. Game on. The Matthews Brothers (and Rodney!) did a splendid job on the Committee boat in challenging mixed light airs. For the last race I was on an unstrategised port entry so as everyone else started (including even the 2 boats that had returned from ‘On Course Side‘), I and John were doing a 360. Doing penalty turns is an onerous duty that can make or break a race. In the event we managed to regain a place by forcing a windward mark penalty turn on a Yealm ‘tacking’ boat. Shane and Andrew sailed brilliantly, eventually finishing 1st and 2nd and TSC had won the race, the match and the series. I think the 3 cheers should be for the Race Officers (Matthews Bros and Neil Ricketts), the mark layers and last but definitely not least - the galley slaves who provided us with marvellous fare. Topsham Team members - Capt Andrew Hattersley, James McNaughton, Shane Buckley, Ed Williams-Hawkes, Jake Anderson, Richard Underhill, and John Skelton. ed@riverexe.com |
