Last Sunday 20th October 2019, 8 teams competed for the annual Teams Race Trophy. Once again the event was hosted by Balmoral Sailing Club and is now in it's 3rd consectutive year of competition following a break in racing between 2004 and 2017. 

Multiple teams competed in the even representing Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club, Middle Harbour 16ft Skiff Club, Balmoral Sailing Club and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Sailing Club. 

After a combined morning briefing with competitors, coaches, umpires and race officials, it was a slow start to racing with the early westerly wind dying out at the scheduled start time. Some time was spent ashore to wait for a gentle easterly breeze to fill in but eventually the racing was underway!

The four teams from Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing club got off to a strong start winning races against teams from other clubs, but the results began to show the most likely order for the final sail off's when the Manly teams went head to head with each other. 

Unfortunately some tough early races meant Middle Harbour 16ft Skiff Club took the difficult decision to retire their two teams following a steep learning curve for their new sailors in the teams race format. Their goal is to make the starting line of the first round of the NSW states with boats competing in the novice division. 

The team from Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Sailing Club were able to take a race win early on in the series, but the standout underdog performance of the day was Balmoral sailing club! The BSC team won 4 races on the water with only 1 loss against the top form Manly team to sail themselves into the 1st & 2nd sail off. 

The order for the sail offs had been decided after 7 rounds:

• 1 v 2: Manly Green v Balmoral
• 3 v 4: Manly Red v Manly Pink
• 5 v 6: Manly Blue v Hornsby

The final 1st v 2nd sail off race was looking at one point to be an upset result with the Balmoral Sailing Club team sailing into winning positions (2+3+4) on the course! However on the last upwind leg to the finish the trailing Manly boats managed to sail back into the contention with the required points (1+3+4) to retain the Teams Race Trophy for another year. 

Well done to all of the competitors for their involvement in the regatta. Thank you to Steve Ilese (Race Officer) and his starting and finish team for their efforts to get in a complete series with sail offs, Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club for providing the Start Boat, Mark boat and equipment, and to Balmoral Sailing Club and their volunteers for hosting the regatta. 

Next up is the NSW State Championships at BYRA on the 2nd & 3rd November 2019.