It is a Sailor's life through and through for this crew

The Royal Navy Sailing Association took to the sea to compete against the Army and Royal Air Force in the Inter-Service Dinghy Team Racing Championships.

The team sailed and shouted their way through fifteen races; six team competitions and three round robins before ‘best of three’ finals for the Open Competition and the ‘B team’ competition.

Dinghy Team Racing is an intense form of sailing. Races start with a three-minute sequence and are normally over within ten minutes. During that short amount of time, as well as racing your own boat on a shifty, gusty lake, you are constantly scanning, scheming, planning and then communicating internally with your crew, and externally with your other teammates, the opposition, and the umpires.

Unusually, the Navy were allowed to enter three teams due to the Army being unable to field a ‘B’ team, and incredibly, all three teams sailed in the finals.

The open competition was competed between Navy ‘A’ and Navy ’B.’

Navy ’A’, captained by PO Natalie Roach emerged victorious by a very close margin, while Navy ‘C’, led by Cdr Tom Tredray in his last month of regular, beat the RAF ’B’ team in the other final.

Capt Dan Vincent, who competed as part of the Navy A team, said, “It was an amazing effort by Team Captain, Lt Cdr Hamish Walker to get three full teams to compete, and great to see so much young talent coming through the system.”

The Royal Navy Sailing Association are always on the lookout for budding new sailors to join the team with a vast range of opportunities for those wanting to test their sea legs.