London Model Yacht Club 

Inter-Club Team Racing for 

THE DE QUINCEY CUP

at Kensington Gardens Round Pond

Saturday 31st October 2026

NOTICE OF RACE
 
EVENT

The Organising Authority is the London Model Yacht Club (the Club) who will host an open meeting on 31st October 2026 at the Round Pond in Kensington Palace Gardens for inter-club team racing for clubs that are affiliated to the Model Yachting Association. 

The event will be a 3 boat per team competition sailed in DF95 class boats.  Clubs entering teams will be expected to provide their own boats but there is a limited number of boats that may be available to be loaned by the Club and its members for the occasion on a first-come-first-served basis.

The Clubhouse will be accessible from 0830 through black double gates just to the East of the Russian Embassy on the Bayswater Road (postcode W2 4HR.) The nearest underground station is Queensway on the Central Line.  There is limited free parking in the vicinity of the clubhouse and further available public parking in the local area.

A lake side briefing will take place at 09:45 and the first race signal will not be before 10:00 We will aim to finish racing before 16:00 



TEAM ENTRY


Invitations will be sent to local clubs but all clubs are welcome to enter a team through the MYA on-line entry system or by email to event organiser, Colin Harper (qq.cdharper@icloud.com). 

Clubs can enter one team and entries will be confirmed up to a maximum of 12 teams. Any clubs wishing to enter more than one team may do so but additional teams will be added to a reserve list on a first come, first priority basis and that list will be actioned, in priority order in the event that 12 teams have not entered by Wednesday 28th October 2026. 

Team Captains only shall enter via the MYA on-line system and will be contacted by the organiser to establish the details of the other two team members; MYA Number, Sail Number, Emergency Contact details etc.

The entry fee of £15.00 per team ( £5.00 per competitor) is payable on the day of the event.

HISTORY

The De Quincey Cup was gifted for Team Racing in Model Yachts in the late 19th Century. 

SPIRIT

The De Quincey Cup is intended to be, first and foremost, a fun event to give sailors the opportunity to be part of a team and to experience a different form of our sport. The competition is between teams of 3 DF95 boats.  

PROGRAMME 

During the day, sailors will be required to sail in a large number of short races. The races are split into two distinct types:

Fleet Races (maximum of six during the day) where one boat from each team races against individual boats from all teams to a score for the team equivalent to their finishing place. 

Team races where, in “round robin” format, each team will have a race against each of the other teams. If time and conditions allow, the race officer may have more than one race on the course at any given time with appropriate start time separation. 

A complete “round robin” series of team races shall be sailed after fleet race 1, 2 and 3  and, subject to time available, a second “round robin” series of team races will be sailed after fleet races 4, 5 and 6. The overall event can finish after Round Robin 1, Fleet race 6 or after Round Robin 2. 

SCORING

The scoring system is designed to maintain interest for all competitors throughout the day.

Fleet Races

In Fleet race 1,2 and 3 teams will be scored points equal to the finishing position on the water of the team member taking part in the specific race. Each team member can only sail in one of the races.

In the event that a boat in a specific fleet race fails to finish for whatever reason, including, but not limited to DNS, DSQ, RTD, OCS ( unresolved), DNF etc. will be scored points for the individual race equal to the number of teams + 1. 


Team Races

In each team race ( 2 teams of 3 boats) boats will be scored points equal to their respective finishing positions. Any ‘non-scoring” boat, for whatever reason, including, but not limited to DNS, DSQ, RTD, OCS ( unresolved), DNF etc. will be scored 6 points for the individual race. These points will be translated into team scores as follows:

Winning Team             1 point
Second Placed Team          4 points

All races ( fleet and team) will count with scores as detailed above. i.e. NO DISCARDS.

The event will be won by the team with the lowest overall score.

RULES

The event will be sailed under the current Rules of Sailing with appropriate adjustments as provided for under Appendix D (Team Racing) and Appendix E ( Radio Sailing).

We are keen to stress that this intended to be a fun event and we are certainly not expecting competitors to read the rule book! However, any peculiar rules will be explained by the race officer during the briefing.

We encourage all competitors to re-start when they are called OCS and to complete penalty turns as quickly as possible after the incident. If all competitors adopt this approach we can minimize any lost time associated with post race protest hearings etc.

One key change to normal model sailing convention is that we will allow teams to bring spare boats but limited to replacing boats rendered inoperable due to damage or breakdown. LMYC will provide some spare boats which can be made available to any competitor with restrictions as detailed above.     

NUMBER OF RACES

The number of races will depend on the number of teams entered but, regardless of the number of teams there will be:

3 or 6 fleet races
1 or 2 “round robin” team race series

The table below shows the number of races per round robin for various numbers of team entries: