International Moth European Championship in Sicily - Overall

by Jason Belben 6 May 2013 22:10 BST 28 April - 4 May 2013

After a long cold winter the UK Moth sailors headed out to Sicily in search of sun and sailing time at the 2013 Europeans. There was a sense of what was to come when early arrival, Mike Lennon, had spent more time sat in his chair in the shade than on the water; the wind being either too much in the morning or cutting out by the afternoon.

The practice race provided sailors with an indication of the sailing conditions with a variable force wind and a big shift to the right but nothing was to prepare them for the next two days.

The area was in a region of the Sirocco wind and it blew with vengeance on the first 2 days of the regatta up to 40 knots, the only thing to do was to tie the boat down hard. Some intrepid sailors did venture out in a bid to up the Moth speed record, Chris Rast put in a brief performance clocking 32.2 Knots, while Ben Paton gave further entertainment clocking 29.2 Knots.

After two days of getting familiar with the dinghy park the Championship finally started with a moderate southerly wind which flicked to the right and varied in strength finally finishing the day non foiling. Chris Rashley started strongly with two firsts while, Mike, Ben and Tom Offer put in some consistent results.

The results posted caused some entertainment then and throughout the week in there accuracy and errors which were blamed on James Phare presumably changing sail number on entry although this might have been lost in translation!

Thursday started with a 20-25 knots offshore breeze and after managing to negotiate the shallows and make it to the start line this promptly cut out at the start gun resulting in a random race which was abandoned. The afternoon saw a light to moderate breeze with Chris's dominance being broken by Mike on the last run followed by Jason Belben.

The Friday saw another day on the shore, this time waiting for the wind, the most competitive racing being the airbed race in front of the club from camp Ninja. As always upon postponement for another day the wind kicked in and gave some of the best sailing of the week. The evenings social was the Championship Dinner which for some spilled over to the early hours of Saturday and some 4am skinny dipping.

So we had reached the final day with still only 3 races sailed and a likely hood of a series without a discard due to a 1300 cut off and some sailors feeling not so well from the night before. However after an hour wait, enough wind to foil came from the north and the event was still effectively open. The first race was never confirmed until the end with radical place changes and some low riding and spectacular running aground from the Patonator; this being won by the Swiss with Mike second and Chris 4th. So for once in the Championship Chris was under pressure from Mike for the final race which brought in the discard. His dominance was not in doubt though when he finished first, Jason second and Mike third after a downwind collision. This gave Chris the European title for the third time in successive years, also meaning the top five boats were British using Exocet designs and a variation in rigs.

Questions to be answered:

• Did Patrick Cunnigham ever pack his boat up?
• Did Richard Westbury find his way home from the Fish Market after being rudely awoken in the gutter by the local police?
• How did Peter Barton get two results on the last day having been ill on the shore?
• Did the British show the Italians the meaning of Shambles?

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm & Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1	7	Chris Rashley UK	1	1	2	‑4	1	5
2	3980	Michael Lennon UK	‑3	2	1	2	3	8
3	3942	Jason Belben  UK	9	3	3	‑10	2	17
4	3982	Ben Paton UK	2	4	‑8	5	8	19
5	4038	Tom Offer UK	5	5	9	‑14	4	23
6	3975	Pablo Arandia  ES	6	(ocs)	7	6	5	24
7	3626	Renker Matthias  CH	7	10	‑11	1	9	27
8	4037	Jason Russell UK	12	(raf)	5	3	7	27
9	3915	Good Morgan BE	‑13	6	4	7	11	28
10	3955	Chris Rast  CH	‑15	8	6	13	6	33
11	3892	Andrew Friend UK	4	15	10	‑20	14	43
12	3752	Holenweg David  CH	10	14	‑16	8	15	47
13	3944	Richard Westbury UK	‑18	16	12	11	10	49
14	3870	Ollie Holden UK	‑24	11	18	9	16	54
15	3945	Eelco Boers NL	8	17	17	‑21	13	55
16	3622	Fabien Froesch  CH	‑19	9	13	16	18	56
17	3912	Stefano Rzzi  IT	14	13	‑19	12	19	58
18	3607	Olivier Vidal UK	16	12	14	18	‑21	60
19	3729	Philip Kasermann CH	20	19	15	‑22	12	66
20	3614	Doug Pybus UK	17	21	20	‑29	17	75
21	3916	James Phare UK	(dnf)	7	21	19	dnf	80
22	3854	Marco Lanulfi IT	22	‑26	24	17	20	83
23	3674	Neil Baker UK	21	18	23	‑25	23	85
24	3715	Chris Jeeves UK	‑30	24	26	15	24	89
25	3711	Dan Ward UK	‑25	22	22	24	22	90
26	3795	Pedro Bartoni UK	11	25	30	26	(dnf)	92
27	3434	Tommaso Freddi IT	26	20	25	‑30	25	96
28	3419	John Clifton UK	‑29	23	29	23	27	102
29	3392	Luca Rizzotti IT	23	27	‑31	27	26	103
30	3798	Philippe Schiller  CH	28	(ocs)	27	31	29	115
31	3270	Matthew Lea  NZ	27	(dns)	28	28	dnf	116
32	3668	Patrich James Cunningham  UK	31	28	(dnc)	dnc	28	120