Marhall King and Ian Wilson's Soak Racing is the Corinthian UK National Champion at Royal Torbay writes Louay Habib
Michael Goldfarb's Warcanoe from Seattle (USA) was the top team out of all the 35 international teams competing. Calascione & Ripard's Calypso (MLT) was third for the Open UK Championship, and second for the Corinthian entries. 2018 J/70 UK Champion, Doug Struth's DSP, was third this year.
For the final day light airs conditions continued, two races were completed won by the highly impressive Luis Albert's Patakin (ESP) and Peter Duncan's Relative Obscurity, which finally found a vein of form. Sergei Dobrovolskii's Amaiz Sailing Team (CYP) continued their sensational form to finish the regatta third overall. Marcos Soares' Highlanders and Renato Faria's To Nessa, both from Brazil, also impressed.
Paul Ward was awarded the J/70 UK National Championship Trophy by UK Class Captain, Hannah Le Prevost. “A big thank you to Bob Penfold and the Royal Torbay Yacht Club for all of their hard work in hosting this event. I would also like to thank all of our friends from the international fleet, which have helped us Brits to go faster! I am sure I speak on behalf of all the competitors to congratulate the race committee led by Stuart Childerley for giving us great racing in difficult conditions.” commented Paul Ward. “Looking at the trophy, it dates back to 2013, when I was thinking about buying my first J Boat. Since then I have been lucky enough to get involved with a very good team, which really enjoys being together. We have spent a lot of time sailing together and that is paying off.” continued Ward.
Ian Wilson and Marshall King won the championship in 2017, and third in 2018. “We are back with a bang this year, and this is a special one with so many great international teams competing. It was brutal out there; you made a mistake and you dropped 10-15 places, just by being slow out of a tack.” commented Ian Wilson, who is also President of the J/70 International Class. “I brought the nationals and the worlds here because it is one of the hardest places to sail in the UK if not the world – they don't play the US Open Golf at Augusta because it is a nice easy golf course, and so we have come to Torbay. This race area rewards those that keep their head out of the boat and it punishes those that don't.”
