Europe class National Ranking event at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Europe class National Ranking event at Grafham © Paul Sanwell / OPP

Sunshine and a light breeze were the order of the weekend at Grafham Water for the 1st National ranking event of the year, with the added bonus of prizes courtesy of Gill.

A trapezoid course with the Europe's on the outer loop was set, with the Europe's setting off first, keeping the racing separated from the Enterprise class who we were sharing with.

Race 1 saw Lucy Boreham sneak away from the chasing pack one lap one and hold the pack off, a tight battle in the pack with the locals of Mike Wallis, Angie Wallis and Richard Major battling it out for second, third and fourth. It was great to see Mike & Angie stepping back in the boat after a few years - showing the rest of us that they hadn't forgotten how to sail the Europe.

Race 2 was another close race, Lucy again sneaking away but closely followed by Mike and Mandy Horton taking third.

Race 3 had many places changes through-out the race, with at least five leaders - at the last mark Mandy had the inside track and rounded in the lead, closely followed by Lucy and then chasing group of four all rounding together, with John Rees finishing third and George Crammond in his recently acquired 418 in fourth.

The fleet then enjoyed the afternoon sunshine ashore, dinner at the club, a few drinks and camping on site.

The leaderboard overnight was an all female line up, of Lucy, Mandy and Angie, with lots to play for the next day.

Sunday dawn another beautiful morning - sunshine and a light and unstable breeze, our excellent race officer Peter Curtis, raised the postponement flag - which ended up being almost 1.5 hour delay waiting for the wind which was teasing by just staying too far up the lake, a number of different techniques were used to keep cool - George Crammond opting to sit on his upturned hull for a bit until the sun got too hot, Joe Penaul-Smith choosing to take the opportunity to even out his tan and John Rees channelling his inner Laurence of Arabia with a top wrapped around his head!

Eventually the wind settled to a 4-5 knot breeze and race 4 got under way. Another race of snakes and ladders, it was easy to go from 1st to last at any point of the race.

Local knowledge paid off, with Mike taking the race win, followed by Mandy, Lucy recovering to third (right up the beat was definitely not right) just ahead of another local Richard Major and class legend Richard Eagleton having a better race in fifth.

Race 5 was another light one, with Mandy taking the lead, being chased by Lucy and Richard Major.

It was all down to the last race, with Mandy and Lucy both able to take the overall win, by the end of lap 1, Lucy just managed to sneak an inside overlap at the leeward mark and cover upwind only to hit the top mark necessitating a 360 allowing Mandy to create enough of a gap and Joe moving up to second, leaving Lucy in third. The race finished in that order, with George Crammond chasing hard to take fourth.

Overall this gave Mandy the win, with Lucy in second and Richard Major having had a good Sunday to take third place from a very close group of sailors.

Gill prizes were handed out to the top three and ice creams were the essential recovery nutrition ahead of pack up.

A great event and a good warm up for the nationals at HISC in less than three weeks.

Overall Results:

Europe class National Ranking event at Grafham - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP