Laser 2 Europeans at Gravedona, Lake Como, Italy

Sailors from 6 nations joined together on Lake Como for this years European Championships.

Day 1

Race 1 started in in 10-12 Knots of breeze under a blue sky but the expected building breeze did not appear. With the help of an I flag the fleet got off 1st time. The local boat of Cristina Gatta and Anna Ferrari (ITA) showed the visitors the way up the first beat and swapped the lead with Peter O'Donovan and Robbie O'Sullivan from Ireland through out the race, unfortunately Gatta and Ferrari found they had collected an OCS. Allowing Connor and James Clancy (IRL) into second place. Big gains were to be made through out the fleet especially down the runs with Bristow and Mobbs recovering from mid fleet at the end of the first round to finish 8. The light conditions kept the jury busy and the competitors on their best behaviour.

The wind did not build and the racing was postponed until day 2

Day 2

Race 2 saw the arrival of the thermal breeze with the race taking place in 15 knots under a clear blue sky. The fleet again got away at the first attempt though some boats were again caught OCS.

The left side of the 1st beat was favoured with slightly more breeze and Terry Palmer & Caroline Cooper (GBR) rounded first coming from this favoured side. Followed by a pack of other GBR boats. The long run provided some interesting tactical choices of going deep early or not. The leading 3 GBR boats gradually pulled away from the fleet to have a good cushion by the race end.

Race 3 saw the thermal breeze continue to build to 20 knots again the left side of the first beat was favoured this time the leading pack was from a mixture of countries led by Noel Butler & Steve Campion (IRL). The tight reaches proved spinnaker legs only for those with some catching up to do. The runs proving quite exciting with the wind having thrown up some interesting wave patterns.

The second beat saw Butler & Campion pushed hard by Jon Chapman & Gary Howland (GBR) with Nigel Skudder & Keith Hills (GBR) making huge gains on the down wind legs.

Day 3

Three races were completed in 12-15 Kts of breeze, bringing the race programme back on schedule. The day belonged to Graeme Bristow & Bryan Mobbs who lifted themselves to the top of the leader board with an almost perfect day scoring 2, 1, 1. The wind arrived at midday and was a good F3 for the first race, rising to a F4 for the second and dropping a little for the third.

In race 4, Italian Christina led to the first mark, followed by Chapman (GBR) , Flutman (GER) and Bristow (GBR). These four got clear of the bunch. Chapman took the lead on the first run of the trapezoid course and held this to the finish, with Bristow coming into second late in the race and Skudder (GBR) finishing third.

Race 5 turned into a boat speed contest and Bristow led from the windward mark to the finish. Skudder worked his way up the fleet to clinch second towards the end of the race from Clancey (IRL) who finished third.

In a repeat of race 5 Bristow led from start to finish in race 6 with Chapman finishing second on the water only to find he was OCS at the start. This promoted Bertelli (Ita) to second with Skudder finishing third.

Day 4

In a light 10 knot breeze race 7 began with a pin end bias that took those going left into a favourable wind bend off the land. Conor and James Clancy led from the start slowly pulling away from the fleet to finish in first.

Paola Bertelli and Silvana Scaramelli, with their strong boat speed, provided a tough contest tacking on Bristow and Mobbs, to claim second place. Noel Butler and Steven Campion sailed a great race to finish 4th only to discover that they were OCSed when they arrived ashore.

The light breeze of today's racing left some influential players in the overall results of the event, many places down the fleet. These results leave an interesting overall finale for tomorrows racing.

Day 5

The last day of the European Championship saw a light breeze on the lake. To complete the program the fleet had to make 2 final races.

Race 8 was biased by a strong wind shift on the left side of the race area that made the mark side favourable. For the victory in this race, Clancy-Clancy battled Sfameni-Bonelli, with the Clancy brothers winning. In third DeJong & DeJong also made a great step forward in the overall score.

In less clear wind conditions the final race was set underway with a port biased start again, Roll-Duewel lead at the first mark. In the run the crews that sailed the centre of the course, like Krijgsman-Leenheer, made a big gain. In the next upwind leg the battle behind Roll-Duewel saw Butler-Campion prevail on Bertelli-Scaramelli.

Overall Results: