Europe UK National Championship at Highcliffe Sailing Club - Day 2

Europe Nationals at Highcliffe day 2 © Sarah Desjonqueres

Europe Nationals at Highcliffe day 2 © Sarah Desjonqueres

The fleet launched in good time to make the 11am start for race 1 of 4. Chris Gill led the fleet from the start, making the best of the shifty upwind legs, with Terry Curtis revelling in the conditions in his daughter's boat (rumour is she's not getting it back!) to take a comfortable 2nd place, 3-6 was closely fought affair with much swapping of places with Pete Bell coming out as victor taking 3rd, the rest of the fleet was also close, with a few capsizes at the gybes the waves and gusts catching many out.

Race 2 got underway, Chris lead comfortably around the windward mark and down the top reach, an uncharacteristic misjudgment saw Chris taking a quick dip at the wing mark making the most of the moment to do an inspection of his upturned hull, this gave hope to the chasing pack, but Chris quickly righted matters and sped off down the run to maintain the lead, with Terry collecting another 2nd and Richard Eagleton making up for a poor 1st race taking 3rd, in another close battle for that spot.

Between races 2 & 3 the fleet swapped sunglasses for woolly hats as one of the forecasted rain showers came through, this didn't stop Malcolm and Hamish Morley cracking out their 3 course lunch, I missed what was for starters, but both had a delightful pasta main followed by wagon wheels for desert. The rest of the fleet made do with the usual chewy bars and energy drinks.

What ever was in that pasta was good for Malcom, making his 2nd port hand flyer of the event and looking good all the way to the top mark, a number of the fleet over stood and had a fast port reach into the mark, making for the usual cries from those on the starboard layline. Chris just made it around in 1st quickly followed by Malcom and these 2 stayed ahead all race. Both Richard and Natalie Adams had also over stood the port layline but we're not so lucky in finding a spot to tack into and both ended up doing some pirouettes. More fast reaches and a few casualties at the gybes allowed Richard to come back up to 3rd and Ben Harris sailing a solid race to come in 7th, his best result thus far in the event.

Race 4 had a short delay whilst the race team swung the course with the shifting conditions, setting 2 fantastic reaches for the final race which saw the fleet under a black flag, the unfortunate consequence of the Phantoms taking 3 attempts to get going and the race committee wanting a beer back at the club! However the fleet was well behaved and a clear start was had by all. Again Chris took an early lead, this time followed by Richard and Lucy Boreham and Christine Slater battling it out for 3 &4 with Lucy coming out on top to take 3rd. Olly Harris had a good race taking 5th and Hamish chasing his dad hard, but just getting beaten by dad into 8th.

The fleet returned to shore all with good stories of close racing wherever they were in the fleet.

Quote of the day goes to George Crammond - You don't get waves like that at Staunton Harold!

Tomorrow's racing has been brought forward to a 10am start with the hope of getting a race in before the wind increases to 30 knots!

Results after Day 2: