International Six Metre European Championships in Falmouth - Day 4
by Fiona Brown 25 Jul 2014 08:21 BST
15-26 July 2014
After a two-day hiatus, the fourth day of the Six Metre European Championship in Falmouth finally produced a much-needed third race for the twenty-seven competing teams. The wind failed to co-operate for much of the day and it wasn't until 17.30 that the race finally started in a rainy nine knots from the northeast. With the wind largely driven by slow moving rain clouds it wasn't long before it began to destabilise and by the second run it was down to five knots or less, making for some very challenging sailing.
In the Modern Division race victory went to Bertie Bicket's GBR86 Scoundrel I with Robin Richardson's GBR88 St Kitts second, Claes Henningsson's SWE114 Notorious third and Paul Smith's GBR107 Valhalla fourth.
In the Classics three boats were called OCS at the start and failed to go back. The race was won by Peter Andreae's GBR57 Erica, with Peter Hoffman's US83 Llanoria second, William Booth's N71 Flapper third and Rainer Muller's KC10 Gallant fourth.
With three races now sailed both divisions remain wide open, setting us up for an exciting final day. Valhalla leads the Modern Division and the Championship with seven points, four points ahead of Don Martin's C11 Blade Runner. Scoundrel I lies third on twelve points, just half a point clear of Notorious.
In the Classic Division Andy Postle and Brian Pope's GBR22 Titia came sixth today and leads the fleet on eleven points, just a single point ahead of Gallant. As the leading pair go head to head for Class victory, the battle for the third step of the podium will also be fraught with Sir Peter Harrison's K12 Nada leading a chasing pack that is separated by only seven points and includes Erica, Louis Heckley's FRA111 Dix Aout, Llanoria, Andrew Webster's USA54 BobKat II and Flapper.
The regatta concludes tomorrow and a minimum of two more races must be completed before a Champion can be declared. The forecast anticipates around 10 knots from the east in the morning, dying off again by early afternoon. The Notice of Race calls for no starts to be made after midday and the Race Committee has brought the start of racing forward to 09.00. If the weather gods cooperate it should be possible to complete two more races and end the championship on a high note.
Race Detail
Dawn brought grey skies and the predicted flat calm, so the Race Committee held the competitors ashore until 14.00, when they saw signs of a light breeze developing in Carrick Roads.
By the time the fleet was in the race area rain clouds were rolling in from the east and the wind refused to stabilise sufficiently to get a course set. Race Officer Chris Haddon sent a RIB out to review conditions in Falmouth Bay and before long reports were coming in of a steady nine knots from around 050 degrees so the fleet set off to sea.
The race committee finally got racing under way at 17.30 and both fleets cleared the line at the first time of asking, but with some individual recalls. In the Modern Division Blade Runner and Beat Furrer's SUI104 Temptation 3 elected to go back, but in the Classics no one returned and at the finish Thomas Kuhmann's GER30 Mena, Christian Teichmann's GBR32 Abu and Matt Brooks' USA55 Lucie were greeted with the deafening silence that confirms an OCS.
Upwind the left was tidally favoured and at the first mark Valhalla led the Moderns by a very narrow margin from Richard Clothier's GBR89 Battlecry, with Scoundrel I and the rest of the fleet right on their heels. Erica was the first Classic to round, followed by Flapper and Llanoria. Behind them came a huge raft of boats and a lot of yelling as everyone fought for position round the mark.
Down the first run the wind was already starting to drop and go left and there were place changes aplenty in the tricky conditions. The Race Committee shortened the second beat to allow for the drop in velocity, but the left-hander came too late for a second change, and the boats almost laid the second weather mark in one.
On the second run the wind was dropping to sub five knots so the Committee wisely decided to shorten at the second leeward gate. The boats were forced to reach down high on starboard, and judging the timing of their gybe onto port for the line was crucial. The Moderns had the advantage of slightly more pressure and on the line Scoundrel I crept in ahead of Robin Richardson's GBR88 St Kitts with Claes Henningsson's SWE114 Notorious third and Vlahalla fourth.
The Classics had an even greater struggle with the final run as by now the wind was all but spent. Erica had initially lost out and was back in fifth or sixth, but an early gybe saw her sweep around her rival's port flank to take victory on the line by a matter of seconds from Llanoria with Flapper third and Gallant fourth. Nada had been looking good for a fourth, but she fluffed the gybe, overshot the line, had to attempt to beat back to the buoy, failed, hit the mark and then ended up in ninth.
Back ashore the crews were wet, cold and exhausted, but relieved to have achieved a third race and eager to get out again first thing in the morning for what everyone hopes will be two final races.
The Sailors' View
After racing, Peter Kay, tactician aboard Robin Richardson's second placed Modern St Kitts, gave us his thoughts on the day. "I think he did the right thing to get out into the bay. We got out there quite early, so we'd done a beat already by the time the committee boat got on station and it was pretty steady. Our strategy was going to be go left just for the tide, but with a such a small fleet that is so close in speed it's more a case of making your mind up as you get off the line as it's interboat.
"If you are on a line with 100 boats you can make a strategic decision about shall we go left or right and the chances are circumstances will allow you to do that. But in this fleet, although we got a bad start, one tack and you are into clear air and then it's a case of, do I go back with everybody else because I don't want to go out on a limb, which is what we did.
"Fortunately the wind had gone left so we laid up into the mark almost on the layline, which helped against the boats outside us and the boats on the inside had over stood so were fetching in. Everybody rounded the first mark in a gaggle, we rounded fifth and we all spread out on a rather sloppy run.
"It was light but it wasn't holey, which is nice because it gives you the opportunity to use that good communication in the crew, with the trimmer getting the helmsman to come up in the light and down in the puffs and all that sort of thing. And fortuitously we managed to wriggle our way down so that the leaders had gone out to the right, the boats behind us had fanned to the left, but actually hadn't made progress on us, and we made the mark. So it was only Scoundrel that managed to gybe in and just cleared us. It was a marginal call to gybe in front of us, we'd come inside the other two boats that were outside us so went round second, cleared our air and tacked and we were almost laying the windward mark again, so that was fortuitous.
"I was pleased that we had managed to get down the run quite quickly. I sailed in this boat in 1988 in a breezy regatta and it was definitely a boat that was very quick in a breeze, but not so quick in the light stuff, and I'm sure it's going quicker now.
"Then the wind went really light on that last run and it was still very tight and the boats were nose to tail, so it was a case of just keeping your air clear and trying to get as much depth as you could when the little puffs did come through, and we managed to do that all the way down. Fortunately we'd kept our wind clear and we'd been diving low enough in the little gusts to be almost laying the line, so we didn't have to put in much of a gybe to make the line. I think inevitably people fanned out, all trying to take each other's wind as we came in there, which gave us the opportunity to gybe and follow Scandal across the line."
Further information, full results, photographs and the full entry list incorporating information about each entrant can be found at www.6meuropeans14.com.