16 September 2025
RYA Marlow Ropes Women’s Match Racing Championship 2025
Winning ways seal title for team from Rutland Sailing Club
A team representing Rutland Sailing Club emerged victorious to take the RYA Marlow Ropes Women’s Match Racing Championship title.
With low pressure sweeping in from the Atlantic, six teams battled it out over a breezy weekend at Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy (13-14 September 2025).
Racing in Elliott 6M keelboats, the popular annual fixture saw teams reefing for a big day on the Saturday, completing a full round robin series in the challenging conditions.
Topping the leaderboard overnight was the Rutland team skippered by Alice Lucy after winning all five of their races, ahead of defending champion Juliette Kennedy and Josie Gliddon.
An early start to beat an adverse forecast for the Sunday saw Juliette Kennedy taking the first win in a semi-final against Josie Gliddon, with the latter then taking the next two races for a place in the final. The other semi-final was won by Alice Lucy against Heather Quinn’s team with a 2:0 scoreline. In the petit final, Kennedy took a 2:0 win over Quinn for third overall.
The final was then concluded 1:2 with Josie Gliddon taking the first race but having to settle for second overall after Alice Lucy and her Rutland team made a comeback with two wins.
The event had an all-female race officials team (pictured above L-R) comprising Event Director Jess Beecher, umpires Liz Procter, Robyn Francis and Cordelia Procter, PRO Nicole Ames, ARO Georgie Hand, and Stephanie Gunn, also an umpire.
Event Director Jess Beecher, RYA Keelboat Development & Universities Officer, said: “I’m proud of how the sailors and our all-female race team performed across the weekend in some very tough conditions.
“On Saturday we went afloat with reefed sails with strong gusts coming through in the morning with some rain showers, however the teams continued to match race giving those watching some exciting racing to watch.
“We completed the round robin on Saturday and came ashore for a debrief. With the forecast for Sunday to bring stronger winds and more rain by lunchtime, we set the first attention signal for 0853! We proceeded with the semi-finals and finals, where we saw very close racing with teams winning or losing by less than a foot in some races.
“In the Final, each team took a win, so the final match decided the winner. With the lead switching throughout the race, as the pressure built, Alice stormed ahead down the final downwind leg to take the title.”
Top four:
- Alice Lucy, Amelie Hacker, Issy Leetch, Freya Pembery
- Josie Gliddon, Jody Slater, Madelaine Kirk, Hannah Morris
- Juliette Kennedy, Kate Macadorey, Ellen Morley, Olivia Jacklin
- Heather Quinn, Ellie Thomas, Maisie Harkness, Matilda Evans
The four friends in the winning team came through Rutland Sailing Club’s youth Hydra programme, led and coached by Fiona and Steve Tylecote, and enjoyed their reunion at WPNSA. Now in their early 20s, all have team raced for their universities and continue to be members of Rutland SC, meeting up at the club when free at weekends and during holidays.
Winning skipper Alice Lucy, commenting after her first match racing event at the helm, said: “We’ve all grown up together racing and training at Rutland and I wouldn’t be doing the sailing I’m now doing without the amazing Hydra programme and all the good people I’ve been coached with making us all better and giving us the skills to jump into any boat.
“I only wanted to helm if I had my other three teammates on board because they’re all so good and have more experience than me - Issy went to the Youth Match Racing Worlds this year and Freya has been twice, and Amelie has done keelboat sailing.
“We were glad the event went ahead because we got in some really good racing over the two days which I don’t think anyone expected looking at the forecast. It was very windy but we enjoyed it! What helped our team was staying calm and having a really good atmosphere on the boat with an ethos of ‘let’s just see how it goes’. We were the lowest ranked team going into the event so there was no pressure or expectation to perform.
“Our boat speed was really good though and the team racing we’ve done helped with the skills for starting and match racing. The team were so good at what they were doing with sail trim it meant I was able to focus on tactics and positioning.”
Pictured: Winning team (L-R) Freya Pembery, Alice Lucy, Issy Leetch, Amelie Hacker
Alice, who recently started work after graduating and now hopes to do more match racing with the team, added: “Being able to do a women’s match racing championship was a good first event for us with a great environment, and it was nice to have an all-female race committee and umpire team as well. Everyone was welcoming, you could ask questions to learn, and having a debrief on the Saturday afternoon brought everyone together so it was also really sociable.”
Next up for the RYA National Match Racing Championship Series is the final qualifier of the year, the sold out Ceilidh Cup at Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht over the weekend of 4-5 October 2025, incorporating the Scottish Student Sailing Match Racing Championship.
The top teams from each qualifier will then be looking forward to duelling in the Royal Thames Yacht Club’s fleet of Sonar keelboats at the invitational only Grand Final, which will take place 17-19 October 2025 at London’s Queen Mary Sailing Club.
Find out more about RYA Match Racing.
