Six Metre European Championship - Blazing sunshine on opening day

by Fiona Brown on 22 Jul 2014 The opening day of the Six Metre European Championship 2014 hosted by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club, Falmouth, opened with blazing sunshine, but not a breath of wind. The fleet went afloat on time for the planned 10.30 start, but it wasn't until almost 4 o'clock that the wind finally established itself sufficiently to get the first of two short but very enjoyable races underway.

The Modern Division enjoyed two fantastically close races. Defending European Champion GBR107 Valhalla, owned by Paul Smith, and Don Martin's CAN111 Blade Runner, spent the day dueling for the lead, leaving the pack trailing in their wake. In race one Blade Runner was victorious, while Valhalla turned the tables in race two. SWE114 Notorious, owned by Claes Henningsson, took third in race one and GBR94 Wildcat II, owned by Andy and Cathy Ash-Vie, third in race two.

The Modern's second race was to have the closest race finish of the day with Robin Richardson's GBR88 St Kitts, Robert Leigh-Wood's GBR90 Lyonesse and Notorious crossing the line simultaneously. The Race Committee was able to identify Lyonesse as the leading boat by a whisker and she was awarded fifth place, but they couldn't separate St Kitts and Notorious who were scored as joint sixth place.

The day's big controversy came in the Classic Division's race one when Matt Brooks' US55 Lucie, helmed by James A Hilton Sr, made a somewhat over enthusiastic approach at the committee boat end of the start line. Louis Heckly's FRA111 Dix Aout, helmed by Bernard Divorne, had been lined up for the perfectly, but was forced to bear away hard to avoid hitting Lucie. Off the line Lucie immediately tacked off onto port and led the race from start to finish. Back ashore Dix Aout put in a protest and the committee found in her favour, disqualifying Lucie from the race. With Lucie out, the race one winner was Peter Hofman's US83 Llanoria with Andy Postle's GBR22 Titia second and Rainer Muller's KC10 Gallant third.

In the Classic's second race Llanoria was over eager and failed to respond to the hail to re-cross the line so added an OCS to her second place. Flapper, who had finished sixth in race one, was also declared OCS. Sir Peter Harrison's Nada, helmed this week by Andy Beadsworth, sailed a lovely race to win from Titia with Lucie third. Nada had finished ninth in the opening race and when asked about the disparity in their two race results Andy Beadsworth wryly answered, 'Helmsman error!'

With two races completed Titia now leads the Classic Division overall on four points with Gallant second on seven points and Nada third on nine points. In the Modern Division Valhalla and Blade Runner are tied for the lead on three points with Notorious lying third on 9.5 points.

After racing the International Six Metre Association's Annual General Meeting was hosted by the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, and Matt Brooks, owner of US55 Lucie, was elected as the new International Class President. Outgoing President Beat Furrer, owner of SUI104 Temptation 3, was thanked for his many years of outstanding service and in particular for his work in producing the ISMA Journal twice a year.

Results are provisional as of 18:45 on July 21, 2014

Classic Division

Sailed: 2, Discards: 0, To count: 2, Entries: 16, Scoring system: Appendix A

Sail No	Boat Name	R1	R2	Total	Nett
		21 July 14	21 July 14
US55	Lucie	1.0	3.0	4.0	4.0
GBR22	Titia	3.0	2.0	5.0	5.0
KC10	Gallant	4.0	4.0	8.0	8.0
K12	Nada	9.0	1.0	10.0	10.0
FRA111	Dix Aout	8.0	5.0	13.0	13.0
GER30	Mena	7.0	10.0	17.0	17.0
US54	Bobcat	12.0	6.0	18.0	18.0
GBR32	Abu	11.0	7.0	18.0	18.0
US83	Llanoria	2.0	17.0 OCS	19.0	19.0
GBR57	Erica	10.0	9.0	19.0	19.0
SUI24	Midinette	5.0	17.0 DNF	22.0	22.0
N71	Flapper	6.0	17.0 OCS	23.0	23.0
GBR72	Thistle	16.0	8.0	24.0	24.0
GBR40	Valdai	14.0	11.0	25.0	25.0
S15	Carmela	13.0	12.0	25.0	25.0
FRA86	Vingt Ans Apres	15.0	13.0	28.0	28.0

Modern Division

Sailed: 2, Discards: 0, To count: 2, Entries: 11, Scoring system: Appendix A

Sail No	Boat Name	R1	R2	Total	Nett
		21 July 14	21 July 14
GBR107	Valhalla	2.0	1.0	3.0	3.0
CAN111	Blade Runner	1.0	2.0	3.0	3.0
SWE114	Notorious	3.0	6.5	9.5	9.5
GBR86	Scoundrel I	7.0	4.0	11.0	11.0
GBR90	Lyonesse	6.0	5.0	11.0	11.0
GBR89	Battlecry	4.0	8.0	12.0	12.0
GBR94	Wildcat II	11.0	3.0	14.0	14.0
SUI132	Sophie II	5.0	9.0	14.0	14.0
GBR88	St Kitts	8.0	6.5	14.5	14.5
SUI104	Temptation 3	9.0	10.0	19.0	19.0
FRA107	Tsigane	10.0	11.0	21.0	21.0

R1 - Classic Division - 21 July 14

Start: Classic, Finishes: Place, Time: 15:28

Sail No	Boat Name	Place	Points
US55	Lucie	1	1.0
US83	Llanoria	2	2.0
GBR22	Titia	3	3.0
KC10	Gallant	4	4.0
SUI24	Midinette	5	5.0
N71	Flapper	6	6.0
GER30	Mena	7	7.0
FRA111	Dix Aout	8	8.0
K12	Nada	9	9.0
GBR57	Erica	10	10.0
GBR32	Abu	11	11.0
US54	Bobcat	12	12.0
S15	Carmela	13	13.0
GBR40	Valdai	14	14.0
FRA86	Vingt Ans Apres	15	15.0
GBR72	Thistle	16	16.0

R2 - Classic Division - 21 July 14

Start: Classic, Finishes: Place, Time: 17:26

Sail No	Boat Name	Place	Points
K12	Nada	1	1.0
GBR22	Titia	2	2.0
US55	Lucie	3	3.0
KC10	Gallant	4	4.0
FRA111	Dix Aout	5	5.0
US54	Bobcat	6	6.0
GBR32	Abu	7	7.0
GBR72	Thistle	8	8.0
GBR57	Erica	9	9.0
GER30	Mena	10	10.0
GBR40	Valdai	11	11.0
S15	Carmela	12	12.0
FRA86	Vingt Ans Apres	13	13.0
US83	Llanoria	OCS	17.0
SUI24	Midinette	DNF	17.0
N71	Flapper	OCS	17.0

R1 - Modern Division - 21 July 14

Start: Modern, Finishes: Place, Time: 15:21

Sail No	Boat Name	Place	Points
CAN111	Blade Runner	1	1.0
GBR107	Valhalla	2	2.0
SWE114	Notorious	3	3.0
GBR89	Battlecry	4	4.0
SUI132	Sophie II	5	5.0
GBR90	Lyonesse	6	6.0
GBR86	Scoundrel I	7	7.0
GBR88	St Kitts	8	8.0
SUI104	Temptation 3	9	9.0
FRA107	Tsigane	10	10.0
GBR94	Wildcat II	11	11.0

R2 - Modern Division - 21 July 14

Start: Modern, Finishes: Place, Time: 17:19

Sail No	Boat Name	Place	Points
GBR107	Valhalla	1	1.0
CAN111	Blade Runner	2	2.0
GBR94	Wildcat II	3	3.0
GBR86	Scoundrel I	4	4.0
GBR90	Lyonesse	5	5.0
SWE114	Notorious	6	6.5
GBR88	St Kitts	6	6.5
GBR89	Battlecry	8	8.0
SUI132	Sophie II	9	9.0
SUI104	Temptation 3	10	10.0
FRA107	Tsigane	11	11.0

Tomorrow's forecast is for light and variable north to northeasterly winds. With more light winds forecast for later in the week the Race Officer has taken the precaution of issuing a change to Sailing Instructions to allow three races on Tuesday, rather than the originally published two, and all fingers are crossed for a good sea Event website