Setting Sail column: Itchenor members have done club proud

Cowes Week may be a distant memory for many but it would be remiss of me not to highlight the successes of Itchenor Sailing Club members, writes the club's rear-commodore sailing Chris Blevins.
X80 Lass / Picture by David PriscottX80 Lass / Picture by David Priscott
X80 Lass / Picture by David Priscott

Pride of place must go to John Tremlett and his team on the XOD Lass, who won the prestigious Captain’s Cup for an unprecedented fifth time in a row.

The strength in depth of the Itchenor X fleet was demonstrated by the fact they won the team trophy for the seventh consecutive year.

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In other keelboat classes, Roger Wickens continued his dominance of the Sunbeam fleet, as did the Wigmore, Hyatt and Struckett team in the Swallow class.

Our dinghy sailors have also been travelling with success.

Imogen Bellfield with Scarlett Shepherd were crowned as world ladies and youth champions at the Mirror World Championships at Restronguet.

Izzy Davies and Gemma Keers won bronze at the International 420 Europeans in Italy, and have won or been on the podium of many of major events throughout the season.

Ben Saxton secured the gold medal at the Nacra 17 Worlds, we saw good results at the Mirror nationals and Katie Davies and Midge Watkins won silver at the 420 Youth Nationals.

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Our RS200 and International 14 teams also came top at their respective championships.

As a club, we were honoured to be invited to send a crew to the New York Yacht Club Invitational event.

This annual international event sees crews from around the world participate, many of them include Olympians and world champions. The Itchenor team was drawn from our younger members and led by Barry Sampson.

The team acquitted themselves well in very tricky conditions and scored several top four places in the 12-race series.

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Talking of things Stateside, the Itchenor team that won the UK Team Racing Championships has also been invited to participate in the USA Team Racing Championships next month on Long Island Sound.

Back on home soil, our fleet sizes continue to grow with competition continuing until the end of October.

- CHRIS BLEVINS

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