Contender European Championship at Highcliffe Sailing Club - Day 4

Contender Europeans at Highcliffe day 4 © Sarah Desjonqueres

Contender Europeans at Highcliffe day 4 © Sarah Desjonqueres

Be careful what you wish for

We all wanted some wind, something to get our sailors' motors running, a bit of 'champagne sailing', to quote Mr Tagoe, well we got that in spades today. The 13knots that we launched in were up to 20-25knots by the time the course was laid and the millpond the roving reporter was dangling her legs into off the RIB yesterday was now trying to imitate the Southern Ocean.

The race officer wanted to catch up on yesterday's abortive effort and get 3 races run in quick succession. So going straight to a black flag start for the first race, the fleet were off and flying almost bang on time for the first scheduled race.

Aside from the odd sailor who fancied a swim, most boats made it fairly unscathed out to the windward mark, with virtually all choosing the same tack out. The reach across the top was a little hairier, not only did everyone have to contend with some meaty gusts but also deal with a fairly sizeable swell hitting them side on, at speed.

With all the boats bearing down on the gybe mark, we had a plan to count the granny tacks undertaken but we lost count and concentration at 5 and became more involved with deciding which upside down boat to keep an eye on.

Not that any of this bothered Simon Mussell who was trying to put at least one leg length between him and whichever boat was trying to keep up with him and was already on the beat as the last few boats attempted to round the gybe mark the right way up.

So, race 5 was taken by a ridiculously fast Simon Mussell, coming second was Ben Holden who has improved from 61st and 50th place in the last 2 races and taking 3rd was Jesper Nielsen.

Race 6 was started as quickly as the race team could make the course a tiny bit shorter and again it was Mussell round the windward mark first with a massive smile on his face.

The 2 reaches across the top and down to the leeward mark were a dream for big wind fanatic and delivered exactly the tonic needed to recover from a limp couple of days. The clubhouse after was awash with exuberant superlatives (all peppered with colourful language) springing forth from wide, beaming faces.

Race 6 was again owned by Mussell, followed home by Jesper Nielsen who posted a 3,2 for the day with Jan Von Der Bank taking 3rd place. Clearly racing well today was Holden who finished in 4th, posting a 2,4 for his efforts. Impressively Highcliffe SC's Gary Langdown, a self confessed fan of lighter winds and who has just gone to bed twice this week at the top of the leader board was also holding his own in the conditions and was not far off the top 10 in both races posting 16th and 15th places.

Contender Europeans at Highcliffe day 4 - photo © Sarah Desjonqueres

On the course the wind was not subsiding and the waves were becoming steeper and steeper with the incoming tide, the knock on effect of this simply making the gybe mark more and more treacherous.

With the tail-enders of the fleet struggling on the reach of race 6 and with both races having to effect an actual rescue or 2, the race officer took the decision to err on the side of caution and call it day after 2 races.

So after 6 races completed, todays heroic displays recorded and the application of a discard, the leaderboard now sees Jesper Nielsen sitting in the top spot, with Germany's Jan Von Der Bank in 2nd and Highcliffe SC's Gary Langdown staying in reach of the trophy in 3rd place.

Results after day 4:

Contender Europeans at Highcliffe day 4 - photo © Sarah Desjonqueres