The first weekend in January saw the 3rd Carmela Cup take place right outside the boat show in the heart of the London docklands. The BUSA team consisting of Skylar Paulich, Matthew Finley, Guy Brearley, Edward Males, Nicola Macgregor, Robert Gullen, Robert Millar and Matthew Pinner finished 3rd in a very closely contested event.
Saturday brought lots and lots and lots of rain, but no wind. Not ideal for sailing but the ducks loved it! Progress was slow with the first class 8’s barely moving. BUSA suffered a defeat to Cambridge in very flukey conditions but finished the days racing on 2 wins and 1 loss.
Sunday’s racing was much more enjoyable with no rain and a steady, well as steady as the docklands can be, force 2-3. Racing was very close and at the end of the round-robin BUSA finished in 3rd with victories over Oxford, St Andrews, The royal yacht squadron, Itchenor SC and The Royal London.
The final stage of the regatta was a 4 team round robin consisting of the Royal Thames, Cambridge, BUSA and Oxford. Racing was very close between all 4 teams with all races being decided on the final beat. The Royal Thames finished on top with 3 victories, whilst Cambridge, BUSA and Oxford were stuck in a 3 way tie on 1 win each. The final result was The Royal Thames 1st, Cambridge 2nd and BUSA 3rd.
Many thanks to the members of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the umpires for running yet again a very successful and enjoyable event.