The Regatta Sailing Academy club championship series was decided on 19th May.
The series is made up of three events throughout the season, one on Qatar national day in December, race two is on Qatar national sports day in February and the final, non discardable race, is held mid May.
Going into the final race there were many competitors who could still take the overall title after the first two events and with some of the pre event favorites unable to participate, the overall title could go a number of different ways.
The triangular course was laid by Race officer Simon Kearns in the protected bay of Katara, Doha, one of the main tourism centers of Qatar.
With a gentle breeze building with the thermal currents the race was started in a 6-8 knot wind speed from the northeast. With the fleet racing in three different classes of boats it was the laser fleet that reached the windward mark first with Spike Douglas leading them. The Pico fleet was next to the windward mark with Lillian Lucas leading the fleet and pushing some of the rear end laser sailors followed by the sole Tera of 9 year old Theo Boyd.
The fleet pushed each other hard throughout the 40 minute race with numerous place changes keeping the spectator fleet on edge throughout the race.
Even after the race the competitors were still unclear on who had won overall as not only was the fleet racing on corrected time handicaps but also needed to count one of the races from either December or February.
The prizes which were bags made from sails of the Regatta fleet were awarded by Gwen Newnham of Trinity Talent Qatar, sponsor of the Regatta Sailing Academy.
The overall club champion 2017 is Spike Douglass, Junior club champion is Theo Boyd and Female club champion is Lillian Lucas.
All of the staff at Regatta Sailing Academy wants to wish congratulations to our new champions and also to everyone who has taken part in the series since December. We are already looking forward to next years series!
Full results can be found here.