Ian Williams won this event in 1997, and has showed that he has not lost any form by only dropping one race to Simon Shaw in the repechage knockout round to take the RYA British Match Racing Championships 2001 title.

Sailing with his brother and 1997 crew Mark Williams along with a talented crew of Dave Lenz and Clive Cokayne, they sailed well as a team showing the way to many of the younger sailors. Along with winning ‘750 and a place in the RYA Match Racing Open Championships from the 17-20 September, he was also awarded the Crebbin Cup for being the highest placed skipper under 25.

Owen Modral surpassed himself, and sailed extremely competently to take the runners up prize of ‘350 and a chance to test his skills at the open championship next week. Simon Shaw, who took a break from Match Racing earlier this year to focus on putting together his successful student team in the Tour Voile, was the only skipper to win a race from Williams and secured third place in the championship.

The top six boats from this event were awarded with an invitation to the RYA Match Racing Open Championship, where they will be able to test their skills against some of the best Grade 1 Match racers in the world. The confirmed entry list includes: Gavin Brady, Ian Walker, Chris Main, Andy Green and Palo Chen.

Some changes have been made to the RYA’s fleet of boats as they have been made more difficult to sail and the weight limit has been increased so that the sailors can sail with five crew instead of four. Ian Williams commented on these changes: “this will make the boats quite crowded, it will be a question of refining the techniques that we have already learnt, and getting better without getting in each others way.”

At the end of the prizegiving race director Bill Edgerton was awarded the Paul Banner Memorial Trophy by last year’s winner Ed Powys for his contribution to the sport of sailing and outstanding sportsmanship.