THE skipper of the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club crew who are newly-crowned women’s British Keelboat League champions says she’d convinced herself the team had actually lost out on the prize.

Ali Morrish and crewmates Anna Dobson (main trim), Emily Robertson (kite trim) and Catherine Martin-Jones (bow) triumphed in the event at the Royal Southern Yacht Club, part of the Dubarry Aquatech Women’s Open Keelboat Championships (WOKC) – beating off opposition from crews based around the UK.

RNCYC came into the event – featuring lots of short, sharp sprint races with on-the-water umpires and no races discardable – with a feeling of unfinished business having narrowly lost first place late in the game the previous year.

The first day rewarded fast, clean sailing with light winds and strong tide, and the RNCYC team suffered from a few painful umpire-initiated penalties leaving them in fourth place overnight.

But the increased breeze on Sunday suited the local crew, and their rivals from the Scorpions, who both put more wins on the sheet and moved up to the top of the scoreboard, replaying their 2021 battle for first and second places, leaving all the outcome dependent on the last race.

RNCYC got a strong start, and were leading at the windward mark, but a twist in the spinnaker allowed Scorpions to overtake and several other teams to get within striking distance.

The Northern crew, though, just managed to hold on to second place, under constant pressure from RHADC (Bermuda), to take the title.

“I actually wished I wasn’t aware it was ours to lose in that one race,” Ali said.

“I’ve been known to lose a good lead before!

“I’d convinced myself we’d lost on count back, so when it became clear that we’d won we were delighted.”

Anna added: “The team worked brilliantly together so we were having an absolute blast while doing some of our best racing, and I can’t wait to do it all again at the finals”.

Points were close at the top though, so morale stayed high as the team listened to the pre-dinner talk and top tips from 4 times world match racing champion Lucy Macgregor, and won a few prizes from the raffle which raised over £1000 for Breast Cancer Now and the RNLI.

Sunday greeted the teams with perfect conditions - sunshine and 12-15 knots. The increased breeze suited the RNCYC and Scorpions teams who both put more wins on the sheet and moved up to the top of the scoreboard, replaying the battle for 1st and 2nd of the previous year. It all depended on the outcome of the last race, and Ali admitted to feeling nervous .The Northern just managed to hold on to 2nd to the finish under constant pressure from RHADC (Bermuda) in 3rd, and they were unsure on crossing the line whether they’d done enough to take the event. Ali said ‘I’d convinced myself we’d lost on count back, so when it became clear that we’d won we were delighted.”

As well as racing for RNCYC, Emily also organised the event.

She said: “Managing WOKC and the Women’s Open Keelboat Association alongside the day job is a huge amount of work and inevitably comes with both entirely predictable and completely unprecedented challenges, but it’s something I’m incredibly proud that we do and I intend to carry on supporting ventures like this as long as I am able.”

The RNCYC team will return to the British Keelboat League for the final in October, and in the meantime will be team racing in the USA and match racing on the Women’s World Tour.