A team of Marconi Sailors travelled to Cardiff Bay this weekend to compete in the final leg of the British Keelboat League.
With ambitions of a ‘top half’ finish in a highly competitive event against 14 other teams, Daniel Nickalls (helm), Hannah Bard, Jack Wardell and David Nickalls found themselves in 2nd position overall after day one. They had started the day steadily but finished off with three wins in their final three races but there were five teams all within just a few points of each other at the top of the league.
Into day two and Marconi started off where they had left off, winning their first three races of the day which now saw them in top position, a place they held through to their final race of the day. Race 35 saw the two Cardiff teams who were 2nd and 3rd placed overall line up against Marconi and it was to be the decisive race for Marconi, as both Cardiff teams still had additional races to sail and could still beat Marconi to top spot. The Marconi team covered every move of their competitors and in finishing in 2nd place in the race the other teams were now unable to score sufficient points in their final races. Marconi had won the British Keelboat League, and the team will now progress to the final event in Poole in 3 weeks time to compete for a place to represent Britain in the Sailing Champions League.
After the event David Nickalls said ‘We have a great team and we were up against some really strong competition from the other clubs, but once we became familiar with the boats, we were able to sail fast and tactically to win out”.
The Marconi club own a fleet of keelboats and anyone interested in getting started in this exciting sport should contact the club through their website marconi-sc.org.uk