Cowes European Regatta

With so little racing scheduled between now and the games, in fact none, Team Oyster decided to create their own regatta out of Cowes.
Enlisting the help of long time sonar sailor, Andy Cassels and the Cowes Corinthian Yacht club, we set to work. As you can imagine sorting out an event at short notice poses several difficulties. Despite these, we managed to get a fleet of 7 boats including the Irish, Norwegian and the current Paralympic Gold medallists, the Israelis. We also invited some able bodied sailors, including our long time tuning crew of Dan Parsons, Jon Waite and Joe Erskine.
All in all, we had 4 days of great racing, with some really competitive foreigners! In the end it came down to the last race between Team Oyster A boat and the Norwegian team. Going into the last race on equal points has been something we have been discussing recently as a possible scenario for the Games so to have it arise in Cowes was brilliant. Following a text book start, we covered the Norwegians all the way for 2 laps of the course putting us last and last but one. Then on the final lap we sailed them to the wrong side of the course and split with them to what we knew was the favoured side. In the end we took the last race win, leaving the Norwegians fighting it out at the back. So Team oyster took the title away with our tuning crew coming in a very credible 4th. It must be noted that the guys have had nearly a year away from us so they themselves gave had very little time on the water as they finished their degrees. So congratulations Dan on your First class degree and Jon and Joe on your 2:1’s- Great job boys!
So finally a huge thank you to the Cowes Corinthian Yacht club, especially Debbie Macdonald for all your help with the organisation!
Finally thank you to Andy Cassels and your foundation for the loan of charter boats and the fantastic prize-giving dinner!

Hx