Wet, wild and windy! The second edition of the International Inclusive Keelboat Championship was held at Rutland Sailing Club, 30th September to 3rd October 2024, with RS Sailing's RS21s as the one-design keelboat of choice for competitive racing.
Seven teams, with representation from the UK, Sweden and France, rotated around the RS RS21 fleet, in testing autumnal conditions that made for tight racing and plenty of fun.
"It was challenging at times; the weather on Monday and Tuesday was very wet!" explains event organizer, David Wilkins. "But we had some very good racing over the four days with 46 races, with every team having at least 26 races over the whole event."
UK Blind Sailing Team 2, of helmed by Lucy Hodges, with her crew Steve, Darryl and Karl, gave an absolute masterclass through the event, winning all but one of their races. It was a tight battle for second place right until the very end, with just 2 points separating the victors. Team Sweden, helmed by Camilla Svensson, with crew Joachim Stadig and Karin Knigge, took silver after an incredible last day with 3 firsts and 4 seconds securing their spot.
UK Blind Sailing Team 1, of Vicky, Jonny, Martin and Ian, gallantly placed third. They had a stream of great results in the wet Tuesday downpours and were strong contenders as "wet weather experts" in their tactics on the water.
"The racing was very close with some very tight finishes," says David. "I was very impressed with the quality of boat handling and boat speed. All that practice over the summer months really paid dividends. I think every team won at least one race and lots of seconds for everyone. So well done to all teams."
Inclusion sailing is all about equal opportunities and equal access to the sport; specifically for disabled sailors whose disability does not meet the Para Classification 'Minimal Disability' (MD) criteria. At the 2024 International Inclusive Keelboat Championship, a minimum of 2 sailors from each 4-5 person team were able to self-certify that they are a sailor with a disability that impacts their day-to-day lives. GBR Blind Sailing and Deaf Sailing UK were some of the supporting organisations that entered multiple teams.
Rutland Sailing Club put on a great show. Its excellent facilities enabled a fast turnround of races by using a committee boat mothership. We christened it 'Hotel RS21'. There was plenty of coffee and nibbles on board to keep the sailors refreshed if they did not have time to get ashore between races.
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