International 14 Europeans at Lake Como, Italy

International 14 Europeans on Lake Como © International 14 class

Andy and Tom Partington win the International 14 Europeans on Lake Como © International 14 class

38 International 14s with strong contingents from both the UK and Germany descended on the idyllic shores of Lake Como for some much needed summer weather. For the early arrivals sunshine and heat (>30degrees) were delivered in equal measures but this was accompanied by only a light and very patchy breeze. Undeterred some ventured out whilst others used the time for the the essential boat bimbling only interrupted by dips in the lake, paddle boarding or a cold beer in the marquee.

After another disappointing drift around on Tuesday for the infamous Adolfo Bastardo with the erm.. trophy... retained by Neale Pink Shorts Jones this year assisted by Dave DS Dobrijevic, Wednesday delivered spectacular conditions for the opening day with a brisk 16 knot southerly arriving right on schedule at 1pm. 3 champagne races, each of 3 laps including the obligatory '14 triangle' were held with victories shared between Sam Pascoe crewed by stand in crewing legend Toby Lewis, Roger Gilbert crewed by Adam Ironman Brushett and Andy and Tom Partington who became overnight leaders with a consistent 2,3,1 scoreline setting the scene for the rest of the week.

Thursday was business as usual with the superb racing breeze arriving just after launching. After Wednesday being all about the left shore, surprise leaders at the weather mark by a huge margin from the right hand side were Julian Pearson and Nick Martin. Despite being hunted all race by the chasing pack they held on to take a convincing and well deserved victory. With the right now determined as the way to go races 5 and 6 were the domain of the 'swing it down' boys with the Partingtons showing blistering upwind pace to take two consecutive bullets with Germans Georg Borkenstein crewed by Eike Giant Dietrich amassing 2 second places just ahead of a consistent and improving Glen Truswell and Chris Blackburn with Katie Nurton and Nigel Ash with a 3rd and 4th apiece.

3 more races were scheduled for Saturday and as before the breeze arrived just a little softer on schedule for more glamour racing. By this stage the Partingtons had a significant overall lead followed by a bunch of boats within a few points of each other all eager to up their game and hand it to the Partingtons. Andy and Tom had apparently neither read the script nor drunk enough coocktails at the 'English' night and fired in two quick bullets to pretty much sew up the regatta before posting an uncharacteristic seventh in the last race of the day allowing Roger and Adam to snatch another victory just ahead of Glen and Chris who along with the Germans jumped up the leader board with 3 podium results for the day.

Going into the final day with just a single long distance race scheduled the Partingtons had done enough to be sailing a victory lap whilst 2nd to 5th were nearly on equal points after discards kicked. The race consisted of a shifty tactical 5km beat up the shore, a monster 10km downwind blast and a final flukey 5km beat back to the start finish. At the start of the beat normal service was resumed with all the usual candidates in a tight tussle led by the Partingtons from Georg and Eike. As the fleet worked its way up the lake Roger and Adam and Sam and Toby made the best of the gusts and shifts to open out a convincing lead by the weather mark. The downwind will go down in legend, 10km of 'down to the knots' screaming downwind blastging dodging windsurfers, kitesurfers, cats and other skiffs on this busy weekend. Roger held on to take the bullet ahead of a fast closing Glen to snatch second place off him overall by just 1 point. Sam and Georg faded in the later stages of the race ending up 4th and 5th overall respectively.

Overall Results: