Europe Nationals at Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy

Light winds & sunshine for the Europe nationals at Weymouth © Steve Bell / www.fotoboat.com

The 2007 Europe Class National Championships were held at W&PNSA over the weekend of 9th and 10th June. Twenty three boats took part, slightly down on last year's record turnout, but the fleet included four newcomers, showing that there is plenty of fresh blood in the class. There was the usual good mix of men and women in the fleet.

The winds were generally light throughout the six-race series, with shifts and poor visibility on Saturday, making things tricky for race officer Frank Newton.

Sunday was bright and sunny, with a more consistent South Easterly breeze, providing a great day's sailing in the wonderful surroundings of Portland Harbour. All the racing was on our favoured trapezoid style courses.

There was keen and close competition throughout the fleet, with four different race-winners. Chris Gill won the first race and rarely faltered, securing the championship with another win in the final race. James Eynon also had two firsts, and could have taken the honours with a win in the last race, but blew his chances by being early at the start. He recovered to fifth place, which was enough to level the score with the Gareth Williams, but James took second overall on the tie-break by having two wins to his credit against Gareth's one.

Katie Mapplebeck, consistent as ever with three fourths and two fifths, took the Ladies prize again, at fourth overall. The other race-winner was newcomer Chris Catt, who started well but suffered a bit on the second day and ended fifth overall. The Veteran's prize was again won by Ian Stow who counted two third places towards his overall sixth.

Overall Results: (Click here to fill in Gear Guide information)