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RYA announce an exciting new Winter Match Racing programme

The Royal Yachting Association is pleased to announce an exciting new Match Racing initiative which will run across five weekends at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy during the winter.

The five weekends are open to Youth, Women’s and University teams and will be run as part-competition and part-training with coaches and a full umpire team at all the events.

The weekends will be run using the RYA’s six Elliott 6m boats. Eight teams will be invited for each weekend where accommodation will be arranged at RYA Portland House for all those taking part, with the evening training sessions also being held there.

The cost per person including two nights’ accommodation will be £100. Teams can consist of three or four sailors weighing no more than 250kgs in total. If you wish to attend but do not have a full team, please contact the RYA event organisers who will endeavour to make up a full team.

The top two teams from each weekend will be invited to the Finals in April.

David Campbell James, Event Director and Chair RYA Match Racing Group, commented: “The RYA previously ran a Winter Match Racing series at Queen Mary Sailing Club in its former fleet of J80s, which proved extremely successful. Now we have a fantastic opportunity with the fleet of Elliotts to develop a Winter Match Racing circuit once again.

“We will have six Elliotts available for the programme, which is aimed at keeping sailors who have been heavily supported through the RYA Racing programme, and who have then turned 18 and gone on to university, active in the sport and racing. Some sailors look to go on to Olympic sailing, some will turn to Team Racing, this is Match Racing, some will become race officials or coaches, so there are a number of different areas within the sport, with Match Racing being quite a popular one. The idea is to provide a transition into keelboat sailing and then potentially onto the British Keelboat Academy.

Campbell James continued: “The events will also provide development and training opportunities for umpires, so we are working very closely with the judging and umpiring group to ensure we get the best out of the weekends for the sailors and officials involved.”

Proposed RYA Winter Match Racing programme dates:
Weekend 1 - 8/9 December 2012
Weekend 2 - 12/13 January 2013
Weekend 3 - 23/24 February 2013
Weekend 4 - 23/24 March 2013
Weekend 5/Finals - 20/21 April 2013 (Invitation only)

Entry forms can be found on the RYA website:
http://www.rya.org.uk/racing/jm2matchteam/matchracing/Pages/WinterMatchRacing.aspx