B14 European Championships at Yacht Club de Carnac - Day 2
by Mark Barnes 26 Jul 19:22 BST
25-28 July 2019
Day 2 of the B14 Europeans, and your correspondent can report that all those that went out on a safari of Carnac last night reported on time on parade for the first race of the day. Bone Work (Scott Cunningham/James Walker(AUS)) were the last to show, but were pretty quick off of the beach and the Raynes brothers seem to defy logic and were bright and alert as the first players arrived at the scene. So a great night was had by all.
The fleet were sent to sea on time with the breeze kicking in on time. So the Contenders across the bay also having the last day of their Worlds will have been relieved as they lost many races to lack of wind.
So onto today's shenanigans. How did Europe do against the Aussies?
Wind was from the west and ranged from 6 - 10 knots with fairly flat sea and some big sea monsters appeared again, especially in the right hand corner where there is a lot of pots. So probably a rock shelf and little tide but lots of weed.
There were no recalls as the fleet sailed under the U flag with a threat of the Black Flag. So your correspondent can report that all behaved themselves. Probably having the fleet being pushed away from the line by a 1.5 knot tide helped.
Race 4 the French got a move on and headed right with The Nude (Richie Reynolds/Lisa MacMillan (AUS)), doing a horizon job on the fleet with Team France (Alain Cadre/Francois Cadre (FRA)), in tow. Only Harken (Nick Craig /Toby Lewis (GBR)) were able to get in touch and finished second behind The Nude with Team France third.
Race 5 with a big shift on the start, those at the committee boat end were rinsed and had to fight back. Big loser was Team GUL/North Sails (Mark Barnes/Charlotte Horlock (GBR)) committee boat boat who fought back to sixth with the big mover being Harken who, having had Tobytastic abandon ship off the start, went out on their own and found a lane to go round the fleet to finish second behind AUS 375 (Craig Garmston/Louis Chapman(AUS)) with Leaky Pipes (Gerry Fermor/Chris Fernor (GBR) on a roll and oruonding out the top three.
Race 6 was a two horse battle between AUS 375 (AUS) and Harken (GBR). They diced throughout the race and had a battle royal with Harken coming out on top. Third was Bone Work (AUS) with a number of the main players for the top five collecting their discards to date.
So overall the top six are Europe 1, 3, 5 and AUS 2, 4, 6. So currently Europe still has bragging rights over the event, but The Nude is on the move and now lies sixth. With similar conditions tomorrow, it could be a bit of a head case situation within the back order of the top ten.
Now we have the AGM and we'll see what the evening brings, but might be a bit quieter after last night.
Tomorrow is again scheduled to have two 50 minute full-on races with Harken and AUS 375 separated by 1 point, there is going to be a battle royal tomorrow with little to chose between the two boats heading the pack.
Results available at www.yccarnac.com/b14-race-documents.html