Mumm 30 Europeans at Royal Southern Yacht Club overall

by Steve Arkley 6 Jun 2004 12:40 BST

Peter de Ridder sailing Mean Machine is the 2004 Mumm30 European Championship having sailed to a 6th place in the only race sailed on the final day of the Championships due to light winds.

The fleet sat waiting for the breeze to arrive and at the first attempt to get the fleet away the wind dropped to less than 3 knots during the starting sequence so Race Officer Tony Lovell aborted the start. Eventually after waiting some 2.5 hours the fleet got away with the wind at 7 knots, the Mumm30 Class have a minimum starting wind speed requirement of 5 knots so it was always going to be a close call whether racing would take place at all. Left up the beat leading up to the entrance of Southampton Water was the way to go on the first beat. Continuing their better run of form from the previous day Rainbow helmed by Mark Heeley lead to the first mark followed by Peter Bonham-Christie's Bite the Bullet and Louis Browne's Asterix. With 11 points between Mean Machine and Bite the Bullet overnight, the crew on board Bite the Bullet must have been disappointed to see Mean Machine round the windward mark in 5th place.

Downwind and the current pushed the boats to the west away from the leeward mark. The leading bunch extended their lead but there was no place changing in the places that mattered, apart from Mean Machine dropping a place. So with the wind dropping and becoming patchy and a deadline to meet to get the crews off the water the race was sensibly shortened at the next windward mark. So Rainbow won Race 10 from Bite the Bullet and Asterix.

Racing throughout the Championship had been very tight with 7 different winners of the 10 races, consistency is the name of the game when no discards are allowed. No doubt Louis Browne on Asterix would be reflecting 'if only' had they not be disqualified from Race 1.

In summary a smoothly run Championship both on and off the water with a healthy mix of competitive racing and good social.

Full race by race results are available on the Royal Southern Yacht Club website

Overall Results: (10 races, no discards)

Pos	Bow No	Boat Name	Sail No	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Pts
1	17	Mean Machine	NED 7179	Peter De Ridder	7	5	6	1	4	1	1	11	SCP	6	49
2	26	Bite the Bullet Theoule Mandelieu	FRA 4	Richard Bonham Christie	8	4	2	13	5	8	5	1	8	2	56
3	9	Asterix	GBR 3093 R	Louis Browne	DSQ	1	10	3	7	2	3	3	1	5	62
4	25	Mammy!	IRL 50590	Diarmuid Foley	9	3	7	5	10	9	7	4	13	4	71
5	27	Media Network International	GBE 1305	Edd Clayson & John Gimson	6	6	15	10	8	10	11	8	3	8	85
6	10	Rainbow	GER 4640	Bent B Dietrich	11	9	24	11	RDG(12)	6	2	6	4	1	86
7	12	Gul Seven	GBR 5930	Mike Budd	2	11	11	2	9	7	12	15	5	16	90
8	6	Kanati	GBR 1430 R	Robert Barr	3	17	16	9	1	RDG(7)	15	13	15	7	103
9	8	Region Ile de France	FRA 2012	Jimmy Pahun	1	21	4	12	2	DSQ	8	2	DSQ	3	107
10	1	Cotes d'Armor	FRA 22	Vincent Biarnes	16	2	14	14	3	11	6	14	16	11	107
11	15	Scud	NED 6553	Stichting Benodet	10	7	5	16	13	4	4	7	DSQ	15	108
12	3	Team Raymarine	GBR 66	Simon Pritchard Jones	12	10	22	7	6	3	10	19	6	20	115
13	11	Topas	GER 5373	Harald Bruning	4	16	1	17	20	5	20	18	14	12	127
14	28	Warp Factor VI LDL Training	GBR 4930 R	Geoff Carveth	13	13	9	8	11	19	17	12	9	24	135
15	24	K-Yote Kid	FRA 18399	Sailing Club ""Lazeris""	19	8	25	4	12	16	13	10	DNF	9	143
16	16	Triple P	NED 6922	Fezi Khaleghi Yazdi	25	14	21	6	14	DSQ	9	9	11	10	146
17	20	Monkey Business	GBR 7730 R	David Wilkinson & Ian Poynton	20	23	3	19	18	12	19	16	7	26	163
18	18	Delft Challenge	NED 3405	Stichting Delft Challenge	5	15	12	DSQ	17	14	23	17	12	25	167
19	14	Aeolus	NED 6535	Lambertus G. P. Dalmolen	18	24	18	20	15	17	14	21	10	14	171
20	23	Alfa Laval	FRA 18303	Southampton Institute Sailing Team	15	20	17	21	DSQ	22	22	5	18	21	188
21	22	Highlander III	GBR 8930	Gregor Logan	23	12	20	18	16	18	24	20	DNF	17	195
22	2	White Shark	GBR 30 R	Geof Gibbons	14	19	19	24	23	21	16	25	19	22	202
23	7	Moonshine	GBR 1530 R	Jack Kelly	17	22	13	23	22	20	18	DNF	DNS	18	207
24	19	Offbeat	GBR 7530 R	Ian Gill	22	25	23	22	19	15	21	22	17	23	209
25	21	Panther	GBR 7930 R	David Eddowes	24	18	8	25	24	24	26	23	20	19	211
26	4	Silicon Theatre Scenery	NED 523	Robert Pronk	21	26	RAF	15	25	23	25	24	21	13	220