Europe Open at the Weston Sailing Club WOSH Event

Weston Sailing Club, the friendly club with the serious reputation, did an excellent job as always in hosting the Europe Open Meeting on 12th and 13th August. There were some other boats WOSHing around, but we don't mind them coming along to watch the best small single-hander in the world in action.

We had a wonderful day of fully powered sunshine sailing on Saturday. Lucy Boreham led the first race all the way, helped by some rubbish boat handling by Richard Eagleton at the windward mark (twice). Richard won the next two, having sniggled past Lucy on the nail-biting last run. Then in the Race 4 it was the turn of Andy Harris, having a roller-coaster series. He made the correct decision on the last downwind leg to hold off another sniggling attempt by Richard. Lucy fell behind Pete Ruff who finished the day with a clutch of thirds, while Kathy Sherratt was still coming to terms with the new tiller extension having retired from Race 1 with a breakage.

So the Race Officer got four good races in as promised in time for Saturday evening curry-time, with a forecast of winds too light for sailing on Sunday. After curry, we were all treated to an excellent technical treatise by foiling guru Ron Price on the importance of testing your foils in the warm waters of the Carribean rather than the Solent. The Europes' next event is on the Firth of Forth, so expect much head-scratching as we scrape the ice off the daggerboard!

Sunday morning was spent by some of us sitting in the sun, watching vertical smoke from Fawley, and making wise remarks about the cloud formations over the New Forest. But wind appeared from the south, the committee boat arrived, and off we went again, except for Peter who presumably had a lawn to mow or some such. Then the southerly suddenly turned into a south-westerly, and the race officer quite rightly binned the start and waited. And waited. Would it stay or would it go? He eventually decided that it would stay (right again!) and off we went for three more races in light-to-gentle with sunshine.

Richard was having trouble with starts the whole weekend, but some good decision up the beats (nothing at all to do with luck!) saw him first at the windward mark and another win. Things were getting really exciting behind, and the other three crossed the line virtually together. With the new tiller extension fully tuned up, Kathy got the decision for second place, with Andy third and Lucy fourth. In Race 6 Richard's windward mojo deserted him a bit and he had to rely on another last-minute sniggling job to get past Lucy, while Andy was almost comfortable in first place. The final race saw more good and not-so-good upwind decisions. Mojo in hand, Richard took control, and with an extra lap being sailed, he hurtled past several Contenders on the approach to the finish. (That last bit is not true). Lucy languished behind, Andy was fully relaxed, and Kathy was planning a whole new approach to the technical aspects of tiller extension design.

The bright sun shining into the eyes of the race recorders caused a bit of difficulty, but fortunately we in the Europes knew exactly where we were, so our results are below.

Three weeks hence sees the hardy Europes hike north to Dalgety Bay for the Scottish Championship on 2nd and 3rd September. Entry is only £20 if you pay by 20th August, so skates on now. Then we all dash back south to Highcliffe for the National Championships on 8th-10th September. The NoR will be published shortly, and the Europe Class association is planning to subsidise the entry fee to attract as many entrants as possible. There will be two discards from the eight-race series, so those who cannot get Friday off will still get a full result. Contact the Europe class via http://www.ukeuropeclass.com/ for full information.

Overall Results: