Report

After a very successful inaugural event in 2007, the second edition of the Royal Thames Cumberland Cup took place in the Royal Victoria Dock from the 16th to the 18th of May.
 
6 international teams flew in from as far away as Australia, North America and Germany. Unfortunately an Irish team was forced to withdraw, and a composite team was put together to race under the banner of ‘Queenborough’. This team was made up from sailors based in the UK but representing 5 different international yacht clubs, (St. Frances YC USA, Seawanaka YC USA, Royal Port Nicholson YC NZ, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron Australia & The Royal Thames YC) thus keeping the international spirit of the competition and the strong ties with reciprocal clubs.
 
Some teams were familiar on the team racing circuit but it was also great to see some teams new to the concept of team racing- particularly two from Hamburg and Berlin where team racing is still very much in its infancy.
 
Practice on Thursday was followed by the Social highlight of the week, a reception at St James’ Palace, hosted by the RTYC’s Commodore, HRH, The Duke of York. The evening was a huge success and thoroughly enjoyed by all and it was fantastic to see so many RTYC members supporting the event with their presence.
 
Friday saw the racing get underway with a full 8 team round robin, the winds were light- and as always in the docks somewhat shifty- but it made for great racing. The performance of the day had to be the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein team from Hamburg, Germany packed with some very talented sailors- they finished the day on top of the leader board having won 6 out of their 7 races, New York Yacht Club were in second place and defending champions, the Royal Thames, winding up slowly in third place.
 
For the second day’s racing the teams were split into 2 groups of four based on their positions from the round robin with 1,3,5 and 7th placed teams in one league and the even placed finishers in the other. There was more breeze in the dock and this produced even more exciting racing.
 
The top two teams would advance to the gold league. Queenborough who were 7th overnight put in a storming performance with some notable scalps to claim their spot in the Gold league along with the Royal Thames, New York and Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee the other German team from Berlin who were beginning to get a grip on the boats and the challenging conditions.
 
Saturday afternoon saw the Gold and Silver leagues compete for places in the semi finals- Royal Thames now showing their form remained undefeated for the day to finish in pole position with Queenborough continuing to turn a few heads finishing up second and the ever strong New York in third. The two German teams then went head to head in a race between the 4th and 5th ranked teams to decide the last team to make the semi finals, in a really close race with the lead changing several times it came down to an umpire call on the finish line which left Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee the happier of the two teams as they advanced to the last 4.
Saturday night saw the event dinner at the Royal Thames with joke sharing, drinking and a midnight parade of women in little clothing past the window- which was nice of the Club to arrange! (This was the moonwalk for breast cancer event round London )
 
Sunday morning and finals day and arrived too soon for some but the competition was heating up as it was now a knock out tournament, with the winning teams going through to finals and the losers heading straight to the bar.
 
In the Cumberland Bowl the teams ranked 5 to 8 raced off. Both matches were very close and went to 3 races however The Royal Perth team beat the Southern Yacht Club to book a place in the final against Norddeutscher Regatta Verein who had beaten Royal Vancouver in their semi final.
 
In the semi finals of the Cumberland Cup the Queenborough team gave the Royal Thames a real scare in the first race leading 1,2 round the top mark- the RTYC managed to claw it back though and go on to win the best of 3 series 2-0.
 
New York had a tougher time against their German opponents with 3 thrilling races resulting in a 2-1 win for the Americans. Great credit should go to both German teams though and lets hope they take team racing back to Germany and help it to grow.
 
 
And so the final that was probably to be expected came about, Royal Thames the holders against the New York Yacht Club, home to the current team race world champions.
 
The first race was dominated by the Thames with both boats getting excellent starts and sailing off in a 1,2 to claim victory. However in the second race the tables were completely turned with a Thames boat pushed over early, it was New York’s turn to sail away with a comfortable 1,2 win.
 
The pressure was on both teams for the last race and with the wind picking up starts were proving to be crucial- the Thames managed to bounce back with a good start and with a tidy conversion on the first beat they secured a 1,2 at the top mark which they held to the finish to successfully defend their title.
 
Great credit must go to everyone involved at the Royal Thames for putting on such an impressive event with teams from all over the world in a venue that is notoriously tricky. Particular praise must go to the Race Management team led so ably by the RTYC’s Honorary  Race Officer Gill Smith who managed to run 69 races in wind conditions that were far from ideal, Chief Sailing Officer Malcolm McKeag who ensured smooth running of all activities on the water, and Jonathan Beeston who ran the shore side operations. A huge thanks to all volunteers and Club members, especially visiting umpires, who enabled the sailors to have such a memorable three days.  
 
The Royal Thames Cumberland Cup is next scheduled for 2010 where it is sure to be even bigger and better.
 
 
Final Standings:
1st  Royal Thames Yacht Club (Winners Royal Thames Cumberland Cup)
2nd New York Yacht Club
3rd  Queenborough Team
4th  Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee
5th  Royal Perth Yacht Club (Winners of the Royal Thames Cumberland Bowl)
6th  Norddeutscher Regatta Verein
7th  Southern Yacht Club
8th  Royal Vancouver Yacht Club