Licensed to keel

Espada wins Women's Keelboat Champs

Last weekend's second ever annual Women's Open Keelboat Championship proved as exciting as the inaugural event.

Louise Morton's Espada won the overall Championship trophy with J-Dream coming in second and Coffin Mew third. The event was again hosted by the Royal Southern Yacht Club at Hamble on the south coast of England.

One hundred and forty women crewed boats for this year's event. Conditions were consistently light for the first day providing an agreeable introduction for the relatively light crews with the wind between six and 11 knots; on the second day the wind rose to 17 knots. Six races were completed in two days.

J-Dream dominated the J/109 fleet from the start despite the slight hindrance of pink tutus and legwarmers as their chosen crew uniform. They won four out of six races and therefore the overall class by seven points from their nearest competitor.  Further down the class Gillian Ross' boat Team Breast Cancer Care had a scratch crew some of whom joined only 12 hours before racing began. Ross took home the fantastic Dubarry of Ireland bronze boot as winner of the Spirit of the Event Award.

Louise Morton said: "Really we are just four middle aged housewives from Cowes though we do have two girls on board young enough to be our daughters so the young blood helps! The Coffin Mew championship trophy will return to my fireplace this year but I was really impressed by our challengers and who knows what may happen next year. With only 30 seconds in it there is all to play for next time."

For more information, visit www.wokc.co.uk