RS300 Eurocup at Yacht Club de Carnac

Pour le premier fois in nearly 10 years the RS300 fleet took their magnificent coques to the continent, this time to the RS Eurocup in Carnac, Bretagne pendant le late May bank holiday weekend.

Après un couple of late withdrawals nous etaient le magnificent seven, or perhaps les sept dwarves, nous certainement had un Grumpy, Dopey and Sleepy amongst us as well as a Sleazy, Windy et Clumsy who may or may not have been in the original lineup. Richard le Mare, for once sailing on home waters, arrived about a week early to learn the tides, discover the lie of the land and to find out where the best bars were. He certainly made the most of this information on the last evening.

Pour le rest of the fleet, the race from the Channel ports was won by Steve 'Sleazy' Bolland and Tim 'Happy' Keen allowing them the luxury of a late afternoon bière dans le club before it was ferméd for the evening. Les autres were not so lucky, especially Ian 'Dopey' Hopkins who later tried to buy the first round with Sterling.

Back to le club Saturday matin pour le rigging et le briefing which went well until Dave 'Windy' Acres went rather too far in blowing up his trolley tyre, requiring a replacement to be found en double rapide temps. Après un deux heures postponement pour le vent thermal to kick in we were off in perfect conditions, sunshine and a force 3 from the west.

Race one, and Bolland, going hard right to take advantage of less tideand waves arrived first at the top mark and defended well to win race one. This led to a herd mentality for the rest of the regatta with everyone largely eschewing risk-taking in favour of certainty. As a result the whole fleet went right up the first beat in race 2. The whole fleet that is except Bolland who, having proved that right paid in race 1, inexpicably went gauche in race 2. 5th at the first mark, he got lucky as Acres became embroiled in a luffing match from hell with the quick moving 'Clumsy' Le Mare which allowed both Bolland and Keen through in the final stages. Back on shore Bolland was penalised for failing to sign on, something that was only mentioned two or three times during the briefing. Quel idiot! All to play for.

More sunshine and shorts and t-shirt weather on Sunday, another postponement ashore and the sea breeze delivered once more. This was the Taittinger of champagne sailing conditions – 12 to 15 knots rock steady from the west. Bolland won another three but in no way had it all his own way with both Acres and Keen leading races at some point and Pete 'Sleepy' Ellis and Duncan 'Grumpy' Jenkins also going well, the latter picking up a 2nd in the middle race. Hopkins cemented the Dopey epithet by missing out one of the marks.

Same again Monday in terms of mur à mur sunshine. However, this time the postponement was afloat as the thermal failed to kick in until late. The officer de course was heard muttering that 'le vent est merde' before adding helpfully 'it's not normally like this'. After shifting between north and west the sea breeze eventually came with a vengeance, building up to 20 knots until it was properly 'onking. S'asseoir dehors comme un blaireau was the order du jour. Ellis did this to perfection in race 6 leading at the first mark and holding off all-comers downwind to record the win. Keen repeated the feat in race 7. With Acres picking up another two positions de podium and Bolland 'aving un jour d'enfer the event was wide ouvert going into the final day with potentially three races still to come.

Tuesday was misty tôt portes and with a reduced fenêtre de temps available it was always going to be tricky to get all of the races in. However, the RO managed to get off an 8th race in a dying land breeze. Bolland went hard left up the beat from the outset to take advantage of the tide and the winding swing left, the rest of the fleet going right for some reason. Ellis led at the first mark. Bolland played his sors prison gratuit card to pick up a late shift and come in not too far behind. Acres also had some private wind and it was all pretty close heading down the run. However, Bolland managed to overtake Ellis comme un mouchard on the final reach to record a final win. Dopey managed to miss the race by failing to appreciate the earlier start time.

Le vent then switched off completement and it was back in for le de-rigging, le prizegiving et beaucoup de bières suivie par plusiers coups de rhum. Voila!

Full results at rs300sailing.org

Lots of photos of the event from Phillipe Viglia and Pascaline Samson are at www.facebook.com/YachtClubCarnac