RLymYC Team Racing at the 2022 Wessex Winter Warmer

The 2020 Exeter Excalibur bookended the Royal Lymington Teams Lockdown, so all team members were ecstatic to be in each others company once more for the 2022 Wessex Winter Warmer, nearly two years after they had last sailed with one another in their maiden win on the Roadford Reservoir.

The 2022 Wessex Winter Warmer took place at Spinnaker Sailing Club on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th January. Representing RLymYC were helms helms Nik Froud, Robbie Urwin and Andrew Wishart and crews Remi Pfister, Connie Stock and Raffi Gracie.

The Warmer presented a challenging field of teams in what is indisputably BUSA's flagship university run open event, with the likes of society teams Oxford and Cambridge Sailing Society, Cindies SC and Cambermet Cardinals joining the ranks amongst club teams, such the Rutland Raiders - headed up by previous world champion Steve Tylecote - Spinnaker SC and our own RLymYC team. The remainder of spots comprised of university teams, such as current BUSA champions Exeter, and other highfliers such as Southampton, Cardiff and University College Dublin.

A steady south westerly on Saturday morning presented good sailing conditions, and the Royal Lymington team got off to a fine start with 4 wins from their opening four races, including an impressive 1,2,3 finish against Oxford University, wherein two penalties to the Oxford boats courtesy of Nik and Remi saw the team sail into an unassailable lead. The subsequent race against University College Dublin saw the first loss of the day, quickly recovered with a good win against Bristol. The remaining 4 races of the day saw two wins and two losses, falling short against Cindies and the Portswood Pirates, but scoring wins against Southampton and Cambridge Universities, meaning the team lay in 7th overnight and safely within gold fleet.

With a windless day forecast for Sunday, the team was pessimistic about the opportunities they might get to move up the leaderboard. However, patience was rewarded as the wind filled in beautifully from the West. A shaky win against Trinity College got the day started, before the team got into their stride with wins against Spinnaker and, impressively, Rutland Raiders, with Andy and Raffi doing an awesome job of keeping the author of 'Team Racing for Sailboats', behind them for a full three legs of the course. The last race of the day took place in a dying and flicky breeze against cambermet, with the latter narrowly coming out on top.

The Royal Lymington team were immensely proud of their overall 5th place finish and left the event even hungrier to represent the Royal Lymington YC on the team racing circuit. A massive thanks is owed to RLymYC as a whole, Paul McStay in particular and all those who support team racing at our fantastic club.

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