B14 Europeans at Lake Garda - Overall
by Lucy Loughton 16 Jul 2023 18:19 BST
13-15 July 2023
The day started at an uncivilised 9am. The wind seemed non-existent on shore, but the race committee managed to find some good wind on the west side.
A light wind start saw places being mixed up with lots of shifts. Craig Garmston & Paul Flemming won race 5 by a long way followed by Mark Watts & Matt Johnson.
Race 2 started with a good first windward leg, however the wind started to die and the race was abandoned. Back to shore where we all waited for a couple of hours for the Ora to arrive.
Race 3 saw Joey Randall & Louis Chapman pull off a port tack flyer to start and this gave them a convincing lead which they held until the finish. Mark Watts & MJ finished second, Mark Barnes & Simon Reynolds third with Nick Craig & Tobytastic Lewis fourth, meaning everything was to play for in the last two races.
The wind continued to build and the Garda cliffs were the way to go in race 4. Mark Watts & MJ loved the stronger winds and gave us a good masterclass of how to sail with a win, putting them in the lead overall for the last race.
The last race of the day saw winds of 25+ knots. Craig Garmston led for the full race with not much change down the leaderboard apart from Mark Barnes hitting one of many banana skins and deciding to catch some fish.
The open event had the top three all finishing on the same score with Aussie's Craig Garnston & Paul Flemming taking the overall win on countback.
The Europeans were won again by Mark Watts & Matt Johnson for the second year running with Nick Craig & Tobytastic Lewis finishing on the same score in 2nd.
Full results can be found here.
All a great preparation for the Worlds starting on Monday.