Top teams duel for RYA National Match Racing Championship title

Eleven teams duelled for supremacy in ideal conditions at London’s Queen Mary Sailing Club for the RYA National Match Racing Championship.

Three days of intense competition saw the overall victory decided in a thrilling final battle for the two teams skippered by brothers Ben and Jamie Tylecote.

Bringing together the UK’s top match racers, and an international entry from Ireland, the racing aboard Royal Thames Yacht Club’s fleet of Sonar keelboats was incredibly tight with more than half the teams emerging from the round robin stages with a determination to take a shot at the title.

Excellent conditions allowed an action-packed schedule across all three days (16-18 October 2026) with relatively steady winds of 10-15 knots, occasional gusts in the 20s, and the rain holding off until after the conclusion of racing.

Event Director Jessica Beecher, RYA Racing Development & Universities Officer, said: “We had perfect weather all weekend that was optimal for match racing - challenging but with no need to reef and the teams were able to use spinnakers and sail the boats how they wanted. All of the sailors got so much racing in, everyone was really happy with their weekend.

“We raced all day Friday and by the end of Saturday had got through the round robin and the quarter finals. The conditions allowed us to run more racing than planned so the semi-finals were decided by the first team to win three races rather than two. It was really tight competition and out of the top six anyone could have won because it was very, very close racing.”

Competitors ranged from top match racers to a team of sailors all aged 14-16, skippered by Felix Garlick, who won the Under-19 RYA Youth Match Racing 2026 title. Although some of the team had never match raced before, or done any previous Sonar sailing, other teams were generous with their time and mentored the young sailors, who were able to celebrate winning a repechage race.

Round robin & repechage

The overall positions at the end of the round robin saw Matt Greenfield and Jamie Tylecote topping the leader board with a 90% success rate after each claiming nine race wins out of 10 from their matches, with Ben Tylecote and Julian Fung in third and fourth overall respectively with seven race wins each.

A repechage for teams in 9th to 11th following the round robin was won by the team of Luke Knezevic. The quarter finals saw 2:0 successes for Matt Greenfield v. Ireland’s Tom Coulter, Jamie Tylecote v. Oli Hale, Ben Tylecote v. Matt Tayler and Julian Fung v. Terry Hacker, with the winners proceeding to the semi-finals.

Ben Tylecote and Matt Greenfield took their semi-final all the way to five matches with the result settled in the final throws of the last race. Greenfield had been leading but needed to get rid of a penalty on the downwind to the finish, then hit the pin mark as well, which cost his team the race and a place in the final.

In the other semi-final, Jamie Tylecote dispatched Julian Fung’s team 3:0, setting the scene for an exciting final against his brother Ben, with each taking into the fray a sibling insight into what each other might be thinking, and extensive match racing experience from training and competing together. Both Ben and Jamie, along with a number of other sailors at the event, have honed their skills through the youth and keelboat coaching available at their home club Rutland SC.

Ben took the first race win, with Jamie equalising the scoreline and then going one better, before Ben took another win to level up the scores. Jamie and his team of Max Sydenham, Gracie Joslin and Sam Osborne then took the deciding race win to become the 2026 RYA National Match Racing Champions, with their boat speed and handling ultimately making the difference to reward them with the title.

Winning skipper Jamie said: “The training at Rutland has given us a great platform for sailing and match racing. It was really fun racing against Ben and they sailed great after a really close semi-final. Rutland Sailing Club allowed us to train all summer preparing for the Youth Match Racing Worlds in Denmark, and all of that carried over to this event, meaning we came in-form and ready to go.

“My team was also brilliant. Gracie and Sam meant our boat handling was perfect and having Max trimming was awesome, especially as he only agreed to fill in this week and it was his first match racing event ever, not a bad way to start!”

A repechage for 5^th to 8^th places was comprehensively won by Oli Hale, while in the Petit Final between the event’s top World Sailing ranked match racers Greenfield (34^th) and Fung (40^th), Greenfield won 2:1 to claim third overall.

Results summary RYA National Match Racing Championship

The Royal Thames Yacht Club was thanked by the RYA for chartering their Sonar fleet and RIBs for the event, along with Queen Mary Sailing Club for hosting. Appreciation was also shown for the volunteer race officials who make it possible to run match racing events: PRO Ann Roy assisted by Kirsty Eaton, Chief Umpire Alan Baser, and our umpire team of Greg Eaton, Paul Robson, Steve Proctor, Conall Bryce and Steph Gunn/Will Massey.

Winning weekend for GBR

It was a winning weekend for GBR match racers both at home and in Bermuda. Christian Hamilton - formerly a regular competitor at the RYA National Match Racing Championship - sailing with match racing legend Ian Williams, record holder for the most wins of the GBR title - claimed victory at Bermuda Gold Cup.

The Bermuda Cup is the penultimate stage of the 2026 World Match Racing Tour, which is scheduled to conclude at Amaala, Saudi Arabia along with the final of the Women’s World Match Racing Tour, with both events offering an equal prize purse of $200,000. The women’s event represents the largest prize ever offered for an all-female sailing event.

Next up on the UK circuit is the sold-out RYA Schools Match Racing Championship over the weekend of 20-21 November 2026. Find out more about this exciting discipline including downloadable resources at RYA Match Racing.