After a staggering 190 races, UK visitors the Rutland Raiders emerged victorious with a comprehensive 2-0 victory in the final against last year’s winners, the Nautibuoys, at the weekend's eighth edition of team racing's Elmo Trophy at the Royal St. George Yacht Club.
In what was the biggest team race event ever staged in Ireland, 196 sailors from across the country competed in the 32 supplied Firefly dinghies lighting up a sometimes-gloomy Dun Laoghaire Harbour over the weekend.
After a challenging Saturday, Race Officer David Bolger and his team started race 97 at 9 am on Sunday morning. No lie in for the sailors who had enjoyed themselves at the Elmo dinner the night before. This year, a very detailed computer programme on loan from West Kirby Sailing Club matched up teams round by round based on who was winning and who was losing. It led to incredibly close racing all weekend as the program quickly established the pecking order for racing.
An Elmo Trophy semi-final start - what a start!
As the morning continued, the wind held firm, allowing for races to fire off every three minutes as the six fleets of firefly dinghies raced teams off sequentially. Typically, this allowed for three different races to be on the race course at the same time, thankfully on different parts of the Starboard S course used for the event. By 2 pm, Round 11 was complete, meaning 176 races had been sailed, and teams anxiously watched to see who had made the final 8 for the quarter-final showdown.
Aquaholics (N) vs Nautibuoys (D) in the quarter-finals of the Elmo Trophy at Dun Laoghaire
So close was the racing that teams ranked 8th to 16th all had the same amount of wins, with only 1 getting the coveted 8th spot and a chance at the knockouts. Thankfully, race organisers could rely on the algorithm that determines how special each win is based on who it was against, thus enabling ties to be broken fairly and quickly.
The ‘knot too shabby' team from the Royal St. George Yacht Club
In 9th place and just missing out were the ‘Forget Me knots, ’ an all-female crew from the host club. They at least had the consolation of winning the Elmo Plate, a new perpetual trophy kindly donated by the Elmes family, which is awarded to the top-ranked team to miss out on the knockout stages. Spare a thought too, for the Glandore Harbour Dangers, who had run in the top 8 all weekend only to hit the round-robin rocks and miss out on quarters by losing their last race.
With a solid breeze of 10 knots and full sails, quarter-finals commenced. This year, in a first for the event, live commentary of the quarter-finals was provided over VHF, which enabled the many watching knocked-out teams to enjoy the action and cheer on their favourites in watching RIBS. It helps too, when one of the commentators, Steve Tylecote, was the very first Team Race World winner and an author of the only printed book on Team Racing.
Schull Sharks competing at the Elmo team racing Trophy at Dun Laoghaire
The quarter-finals eventually went to form after some contested races with Aquaholics, Berth Ctrl, Anchor management and Motorsailors getting knocked out. It seems as much thought goes into team name strategy as anything else for the Elmo trophy!
Anchor management competing at the Elmo team racing Trophy at Dun Laoghaire
The semis saw Round Robin winners ‘Prestige Worldwide' face off against ‘Nautibouys’. Would there be a changing of the guard? Two frantic races determined the result, and the Round Robin winners were out. A young team, they will surely come again next year.
The Second Semi matched off SAC4CUP, a team packed with academy sailors and schoolmates, against the UK raiders from Rutland. It was at this stage in the event that Rutland moved up a gear and comprehensively won 2-0 despite some excellent starting from the St. Andrews team.
Star Martinis watching the knockouts at the Elmo Team Racing Trophy at Dun Laoghaire Harbour
Pier pressure changing from Storm to Full sails at the Elmo team racing trophy
So, after a staggering 188 races, it had come down to the final. With spectators and commentators getting excited and the time past 4 pm, Rutland Raiders and Nautibuoys lined up in the RSGYC Green and Yellow fireflies to battle it out. This was a match-up of team racing experts versus super fast sailors. Who would win out? Well, yet again, Rutland moved up another gear with the team racing experts suddenly showing they were super fast as well and started race one like a tornado as they blew last year's winners off the start line with a coveted 1-2-3 combination. Despite some gallant sailing, the Nautibuoys were quickly down 1-0 in the first to two finals.
The Elmo Trophy Final - Rutland In green, Nautibuoys in yellow
Race 2 was do-or-die stuff, but despite raising their game, the Nautibuoys were powerless to stop Rutland from taking control of the race down the run and easing to 1-3-4 win and, thus, the title.
So the 8th Elmo trophy, Ireland’s top youth team racing event, goes to the UK this year, as the Rutland captain Jamie Tylecote dryly observed it was a sweet revenge after Irish universities took the UK crown earlier this year.
The Rutland Raiders winning team was Jamie Tylecote, Harry Burges, Tom Coates, Harry Rowlands, William Fearn and Dylan Beatty.
Elmo Trophy 2023 results
