Mumm 30 Europeans at Royal Southern Yacht Club - Day 1

Action from day 1 of the Mumm 30 Europeans at Hamble © Steve Arkley / Sailshots

Action from day 1 of the Mumm 30 Europeans at Hamble © Steve Arkley / Sailshots

Report from Mark Jardine on Mean Machine

After yesterday’s practice race held in around 12 knots, the 26 yachts at the Mumm 30 European Championships were hoping for more of the same for the three scheduled races.

Racing just off the Hill Head coast in the Solent, conditions looked set for good racing with another 12 knot north-westerly wind already established. This direction is ideally suited for the race area as the wind pipes down Southampton Water and the tide flow is relatively even compared to some of the stronger tidal areas of the Solent.

After a short postponement the first race was sent away just before 11am. The course throughout the event is a windward-leeward three lap race lasting around 1.5 hours. This gives a relatively short beat and the fleet standard makes for an incredibly close rounding at the first windward mark. This proved the case straight away with a couple of collisions at this point showing how close the racing was going to be. Getting away cleanly from this was Jimmy Pahun in ‘Region Ile de France’ who took the first race of the event. Close behind was Mike Budd in ‘Gul Seven’ and Bent B Dietrich’s German team on ‘Rainbow’.

By the time of the second race the wind was shifting considerably with gusts between 6-14 knots. The fleet got away first time and the tacticians tried to work their way up the beat in the patchy wind. This proved easier said than done but Louis Browne’s ‘Asterix’ made the most of the conditions to take the race. Vincent Biarnes French team of ‘Cotes d'Armor’ came in second with Diarmuid Foley’s Irish team (with a few Hamble locals) on ‘Mammy!’ third.

The shifts seemed to be getting bigger and bigger for the final race but the gradient wind held on without any real signs of a sea breeze killing it off. The first beat again proved to be a tacticians nightmare unless you were on the right side of the shifts. Early on the left looked good until a huge right shift saw the northern boats come in first to the windward mark. The runs proved just as tricky with bands of breeze moving the placings constantly. Harald Bruning’s German team on ‘Topaz’ made the running throughout the race to win the third with Richard Bonham Christie’s French team on ‘Bite the Bullet’ second.

Once ashore it was obvious that consistency was going to be the key for this regatta to do well in the overall standings. The top three consist of no race winners, but instead had the teams who had managed to knock in three reasonable races. With so many top sailors a bad first beat often leads to a bad race result. Also with this being a no discard series every error will be counted.

The courses set by Tony Lovell and his team from the Royal Southern Yacht Club have been challenging but have made the most of the difficult conditions. We look forward to more tomorrow.

Report from Steve Arkley

Day 1 of the Mumm30 European Championships and the sun shone on the competitors and the winds were a pleasant but shifty Force 2-3, unseasonally from the North West. The quality fleet comprised of 26 entries, representing 5 European countries though notably there were no Italian entrants.

The windward leeward course for Race 1 was set in the mouth of Southampton Water and perhaps with the knowledge of no discards being allowed in the 11 race programme the fleet got away cleanly at the first time of asking. First to the windward mark was Mike Budd sailing Gul Seven, a recent recruit to the fleet having successfully campaigned a Melges24, followed by regular Mumm30 campaigner Jimmy Pahun helming Region Ile de France and in 3rd John Grimson on board Media Network International. Downwind Pahun overtook Budd by gybing early a position he held to the finish. Budd finished 2nd however on the final run Grimson lost 3rd place whilst undertaking penalty turns allowing Robert Barr on Kanati to finish 3rd. The racing was tight throughout the fleet for Race 1 with only 4 minutes covering the first to last finisher.

Race 2 and the course was moved closer to the northern shore to eliminate some of the effects of the tide as the wind had dropped slightly from Race 1. Taking a course up the middle of the windward leg first to arrive was Louis Browne's Asterix followed by Vincent Barnes's Cotes d'Armour and Diarmuid Foley in Mammy. Downwind the fleet split but by the leeward mark the positions remained the same. Back to the windward mark and the first 3 were pulling out on the rest of the fleet and the status quo remained to the finish. The fore runners from Race 1 did not feature in Race 2 with Jimmy Pahun no doubt cursing his resolute sole pursuit of the right hand side of the beat on the initial windward leg which was to put him near the back of the fleet.

Into Race 3 and for a while it looked like the wind was dying further but as the race started it picked up. A new race and another new leader, Monkey Business helmed by David Wilkinson was the initial leader followed by Harald Bruning's Topas and in 3rd Bite the Bullet helmed by Theoule Mandelieu. Bruning then took the lead and Mandelieu came up into 2nd with Wilkinson eventually finishing 3rd.

So far in the Championship no boat has managed to stamp their authority on the fleet so the early signs are that this will be a very open championship. There are a number of protests underway at the moment so the first day's results are provisional.

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

Results after day 1: