Marconi sailing clubs keelboat champions, competed in the British Keelboat League competition this weekend at Burnham. Racing in a fleet of 5 teams, the Marconi sailors were aiming to come out on top to secure a place in the National final later in the season.
Marconi’s team, supported by local companies Dinghy Rope, Billericay Heating, and TCS Chandlery, comprised of Tom Clayton, Tristan Walker-Hutt, Bryan Spencer, Jack Collis and Luke Lazell who last month won a highly competitive 9 race regatta to become Marconi champions and the right to represent the club in the British Keelboat League (BKL).
Since winning their local regatta, the Marconi team prepared with a series of training events on the river crouch to familiarise themselves with the Hunter 707 keelboats that were used for the two day BKL regatta. This training proved invaluable as they were easily the team quickest out of the blocks at the start of the regatta, with a win in the first and third race on day one. After 12 races the Marconi team were in 4th position, just 4 points (a single win) separating the top four teams.
On day two, our team sailed a further eight 15 minute windward leeward races and were fiercely competitive in the pre-start area but unfortunately receiving penalties and suffering from unkind wind shifts on too many occasions resulted in them not being able to improve on their overall position.
Day two saw Marconi finish in 4th position but our team were not disheartened having enjoyed doing some close quarter racing in a high level fleet and learned an enormous amount in the process that they can now build on for future events.
2nd : Queen Mary SC 59
3rd : Royal Corinthian YC 56
4th : Marconi SC 46
5th : North London SC 24
The BKL is the UK element of the Champions League of sailing, a competition that sees the best keelboat club teams from across Europe racing a series of regatta finals in Switzerland and Italy in an attempt to become crowned European Champions.
Tom, Tristan, Bryan, Jack and Luke would like to thank Marconi – SC and it’s sponsors for supporting them in the event and they look forward to passing on their experiences within the club.
Well done to our Marconi team, they represented the club in a very positive way and made a big impression on the staff from the RYA Keelboat section.