J/109 Checkmate Team Wins After Sixth Try! (Tarbert, Scotland- May 23-26)- After more than 20 years competing on Loch Fyne, Nigel Biggs and the Checkmate Sailing Team (sailing as "Christie Cancer Care") from the North West of England won the overall Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series Trophy, the top award for the annual regatta which finished yesterday off Tarbert and attracted 160 boats racing in 14 different classes.
Sailing a J109 in the highly competitive IRC Class 3, Biggs and crew won with their sponsor-named Christie Cancer Care to publicise the Manchester centre of excellence which cared for Biggs' late father, it was a poignant and appropriate year for the crew to get their hands on the top award. The nine strong team endured a tough final pair of races today when they started prematurely in the final race of the series and were hampered by slower boats in the first race to post a second and third, their weakest scores of the regatta. Conditions for the final day were typical of one of less pleasing faces of Loch Fyne: wet, grey and a mix of light winds peppered with periods of difficult gusty breezes.
Based in Manchester, The Christie Cancer Care centre covers a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist centre around 15% patients are referred there from other parts of the UK. The Christie is an international leader in research with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years. It runs one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year, and the centre has been officially ranked the best in the UK.
For more info about Christie Cancer Care Centers. For more info about Checkmate Team.