Americans win top prize at West Kirby sailing event

May 14 2008 by Sue McCann, Neston News

AMERICAN team Silver Panda this weekend won the 59th Wilson Trophy, hosted by West Kirby Sailing Club.

Sailing in an all-American final against Larchmont YC, Silver Panda won the world’s premier Team Racing sailing event with three straight wins in a best of five final.

With hundreds of spectators watching from the grandstand beside the Marine Lake in glorious sunshine, West Kirby Sailing Club once more put on a superb event, with over 200 races completed with military precision over two days.

A total of 32 teams, including teams from the USA, Canada and Ireland as well as all over Great Britain, competed for the Wilson Trophy, the world’s premier Team Racing sailing event.

The competition, known as the British Open Team Racing Championships, has long attracted the best team racing teams in the world to travel hundreds of miles to compete.

Two very tight sem-finals saw two home West Kirby teams, the West Kirby Hawks and West Kirby SC, competing against the two eventual finalists.

With each semi-final going to three races, in a best of three race series, the true calibre of the teams racing at the Wilson Trophy was on show for all to see.

The annual event, which first took place in 1947, is sailed in two-man Firefly dinghies, provided by West Kirby Sailing Club.

Team racing has been likened to playing chess on the water, with crews using tactics and the rules of sailing to gain advantage over the opposing team.

Next year, the 60th annual Wilson Trophy will be hosted by West Kirby Sailing Club. The committee plans to run a three-day celebratory event over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend.