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Displaying items by tag: RYA Winter Match Racing Series

Entry is now open for the RYA Winter Match Racing Series 2023 which kicks off in RS21s at London’s Queen Mary Sailing Club in the New Year.

The #rockupandrace series will also give teams an opportunity to compete in 707s and Elliott 6Ms with each event offering windward-leeward match racing for up to eight or nine teams.

There will be a warm welcome at each event for both experienced young match racers and those who would like to give it a go, with coaching support available for participants.

Entries are invited for teams of four/five crew for Qualifier 1, for which there is an early bird discount available for teams who sign up before 11.59pm on Monday 19 December.

Full details can be found in the Notice of Race and registration for three of the four events in the series is now open HERE.

The format of racing for each event, conditions allowing, will include a round robin, semi-finals and finals. The full series will be as follows:

  • 14-15 January 2023: Winter Match Racing Q1, RS21s at Queen Mary Sailing Club
  • 4-5 February 2023: Women's Winter Match Racing, Elliott 6Ms at WPNSA
  • Date & venue TBC: Rory Cheetham Cup, incorporating WMR Q2
  • 18-19 March 2023: Winter Match Racing Q3, 707s at Royal Corinthian YC, Burnham-on-Crouch

RYA director of racing Nick Scott said: “With a fleet of one-design keelboats ready to go at each event, RYA Match Racing provides an accessible platform for teams to take part in this exciting discipline, including young and aspiring keelboat sailors and youth sailors looking to try something new.

“As ever we have some fantastic venues lined up and we’re really looking forward to welcoming both experienced and new participants to the RYA Winter Match Racing Series.”

Also coming up this winter is the rescheduled 2022 RYA Marlow Ropes Women's Match Racing Championships, which will take place in Elliott 6Ms at Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy, 11-12 February 2023, with entry available here.

Find out more about RYA Match Racing and all upcoming events at www.ryamatchracing.co.uk.

Published in Match Racing

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.