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Gill RS800 European Championships, Riva del Garda - Final report

by Toby Wincer, James Date, Dave Hivey on 6 Aug 2014
Gill RS800 European Championships, Riva del Garda 2014 Paul Wyeth
Gill RS800 European Championships, Riva del Garda - Day four - As everyone reached the committee boat, the Ora (the Southerly thermal wind) came in and soon built to 13-15 knots, almost as if it was planned! We finally had the weather Garda is so famous for, sun and wind!

Off the first start the fleet headed inshore on the left towards the cliffs on the Torbole side of the lake. All except Tim Saxton and Sam Littlejohn who made their intentions clear, and took a risk by heading for the cliffs on the far right of the beat.

As the two sides came back together at the windward mark, Tim and Sam had a slight lead ahead of Dave and Lou Steed, James Date and Toby Wincer.

Saxton-Littlejohn held their lead to the finish, whilst Date-Wincer and Pete Barton and Chris Feibusch had an intense battle down the final run with Date-Wincer eventually sneaking second place meters from the finish line. The Steed's and Dave Hivey and James Barlow rounded out the top five.


The second race began in a similar fashion to the end of the first with the fleet racing towards the cliffs on the hard right of the beat, with gusts pushing towards 20 kts. After clear starts Saxton-Littlejohn and Date-Wincer rounded the first mark in that order and extended to the finish. Barton-Feibusch and the Steed's again took third and fourth respectively with James Green and James Trewick showing great pace to round out the top five.

A small left shift before the final start of the day meant that the boats starting towards the pin, and crossing early on port had the advantage. Hivey-Barlow made the most of this to lead round the windward followed by Andy and Allyson Jeffries and Luke and Emma McEwen. However, Saxton-Littlejohn sailed a great run and second beat to lead round the next windward after Hivey-Barlow tacked just under the starboard lay-line and had to do an extra two tacks.

Saxton-Littlejohn again held out to the finish to round off an excellent day, followed by the Jeffries', Hivey-Barlow, Date-Wincer after a strong recovery and Barton-Feibusch.

The final race of the day brought in the second discard closing up the points at the top with Saxton-Littlejohn one point clear of Date-Wincer, themselves one ahead of Hivey-Barlow.

With two more races to finish the regatta tomorrow it will be a great finish, with Date-Wincer in a strong position with two fourths as discards and Barton-Feibusch able to challenge for the podium with a good day. Let’s hope for the same sun and wind as today!

Day five

The final day of competition was all set up for a grandstand finish, with the northerly dying off early and scorching hot temperatures, the signs were good for a big Ora day to finish off the week.

The first race of the day was led from the off by Andy and Allyson Jeffries with a trademark through the fleet on port start to lead the race to the cliffs in a building 18 knots of breeze. In second and revelling in the conditions were Pete Barton and Chris Feibusch. Also in the mix were the podium contenders with Dave Hivey and James Barlow leading Tim Saxton and Sam Littlejohn, with James Date and Toby Wincer in hot pursuit.

Date-Wincer managed to get involved down the run with a nicely timed gybe on Saxton-Littlejohn at the leeward gates nearly sending them swimming and pushing them back a few places. Whilst Andy and Allyson and Barton Feibusch extended at the front, Date-Wincer set about chasing down Hivey-Barlow. Despite catching to within a couple of boat lengths at the finish, the race finished in that order, with Saxton-Littlejohn recovering well to come in fifth.

And that set up a truly scintillating finale, Saxton-Littlejohn, Date-Wincer and Hivey-Barlow all tied on points, with a couple of nasty discards hanging over the heads of two of the boats, it was all to play for, but any resurrection of university team racing skills was out of the question. It was a final race showdown to decide the title!

To add to the occasion, the Ora decided to ramp up a few knots to be pushing and perhaps exceeding 30 knots at times. This was going to be a war of attrition, and what a way to finish the regatta.

And there is only one word to describe this final race. Epic! With nothing worse than a fourth on their scorecard, Date-Wincer went for a more high risk approach starting on port through the fleet. This went badly and resulted in swimming. Perfectly executed starts from Saxton-Littlejohn and Hivey-Barlow saw them first and second around the top mark. Barton-Feibusch were in the mix as usual, with Martin Boatman and Andrew Brown and James Green and Jamie Trewick also enjoying the conditions and putting in their best showing of the week.

And that was surely it, a straight out battle for the victory at the front between Saxton-Littlejohn and Hivey-Barlow with Date-Wincer spectating from the side lines praying to the Ora god that both of them ended up worse than fourth. This wouldn’t have been exciting enough for the script so Hivey-Barlow duly obliged by falling in the water on their gybe set. Date-Wincer powered past in full catch up mode before binning it spectacularly at the gybe at the cliffs. Saxton-Littlejohn merely had to hold it together for the victory, but that would have also been too simple, so a quick trawl of the kite and a swim at the next windward really threw everything up in the air again. Boatman-Brown were now out in front followed by Barton-Feibusch and Green-Trewick with Hugh Watson and Andy Watkins having a great race, and Luke and Emma McEwan also keeping it upright and fast.


Lap two and it was looking good for Date-Wincer with Hivey-Barlow in sixth and Saxton-Littlejohn in seventh, a result that would have seen the European title retained. With the breeze really ramping up and the carnage increasing, it would all go down to the last run. Boatman-Brown swam at the windward mark leaving Barton-Feibusch to power away to a great victory, continuing their habit of winning the last race of every regatta they do. Saxton-Littlejohn had a fantastic last beat and run to move through into second. Green-Trewick took a superb third showing they are really getting to grips with the 800 and finishing the event on a high. Hivey-Barlow took two boats down the last run to move into fourth, just passing the McEwans within sight of the finish line.

So, Saxton-Littlejohn very deservedly crowned European Champions by two points having sailed a superb week, with Hivey-Barlow doing the enough on the last run to pip Date-Wincer on count back to complete the podium.

Another classic RS800 regatta with six different race winners and a final race showdown of truly epic proportions, there cannot be a better class to be racing in at the moment. The chat in the Occa bar on Friday night after a great prize giving hosted by Fraglia Vela Riva was all of the Nationals in a few weeks’ time, and yet again, we have no idea how that story will unfold.

The fleet would like to thank all involved in putting together another great trip to Riva, which despite its best efforts the weather did not manage to dampen, and we can’t wait to go back in two years’ time.


Final Results

 


 

 

No Numero Nome Punti 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 GBR 1203 Tim Saxton, Sam Littlejohn, Grafham Water SC 19,0 (6) 1 (9) 3 5 1 1 1 5 2
2 GBR 1211 David Hivey, James Barlow, RYA 21,0 1 (20) 2 1 2 5 (12) 3 3 4
3 GBR 1195 James Date, Toby Wincer, Port Dinorwic SC 21,0 2 3 1 (4) 3 2 2 4 4 (dnf)
4 GBR 949 Peter Barton, Chris Feibusch, HISC 23,0 (8) (18) 3 2 4 3 3 5 2 1
5 GBR 1129 Luke McEwen, Emma McEwen, Royal Lymington YC 45,0 3 5 4 (12) 6 (15) 10 6 6 5
6 GBR 1212 Andy Jeffries, Allyson Jeffries, Eastbourne Sovereign SC 48,0 (10) 9 5 6 9 9 7 2 1 (dnf)
7 GBR 1180 Tom Halhead, Stu Jagger 49,0 5 (16) 6 7 1 8 8 7 (12) 7
8 GBR 1154 David Steed, Louise Steed, Netley SC 54,0 4 2 8 10 7 4 4 15 (18) (16)
9 GBR 1138 Martin Boatman, Andrew Brown 60,0 (28) 6 7 8 8 6 9 (13) 7 9
10 GBR 1133 Hugh Watson, Andy Watkins, Emsworth SC 83,0 (20) 8 12 (21) 18 7 16 8 8 6
11 FRA 897 Gilles Peeters, Jean Rouillon, YC Carnac 87,0 16 11 10 5 10 14 (33) 11 10 (21)
12 GBR 1163 James Green, James Trewick, Beer SC 91,0 (21) 7 17 14 16 16 5 (20) 13 3
13 GBR 868 Joel Walker, Sarah Crossman, Lancing SC 94,0 7 4 16 11 13 (25) 18 14 11 (24)
14 GBR 1135 Ella Morland, James Morland, Warsash SC 99,0 9 (19) (18) 13 12 11 14 10 16 14
15 GBR 1128 Seb Baucutt, Alex Farrell, Essex YC 117,0 14 17 (dnf) (dnf) 24 10 22 9 9 12
16 GBR 1142 Oli Woods, Jane Turner, Itchenor SC 118,0 (27) 14 (dnf) 9 23 24 11 12 17 8
17 GBR 7 Derek Buchanan, Elaine Buchanan, Oxford SC 129,0 13 12 15 20 21 21 (28) 16 (22) 11
18 GBR 1073 David Conlon, Ed Gibbons 132,0 11 13 19 15 11 12 32 (ocs) 19 (dnf)
19 GBR 1202 Andrew Blundell, Maddie Fenner, Weston SC 133,0 12 24 11 16 14 (26) 13 23 (26) 20
20 GBR 1132 Mick Whitmore, Sarah Smith, Eastbourne Sovereign SC 139,0 17 10 21 18 19 22 15 17 (23) (dnf)
21 GBR 1148 Steven Greaves, Caroline Edwards, Rickmansworth SC 149,0 15 (27) 24 23 17 20 6 (30) 21 23
22 GBR 1091 Paul Jenkins, Peter Jenkins, Weir Wood SC 151,0 (26) 15 20 22 22 18 23 (28) 14 17
23 FRA 1130 Julian Antier, Fritsch Boris 160,0 22 (31) 23 19 (27) 23 27 21 15 10
24 GBR 1185 Stephen Brown, Philip Bairstow, Ullswater YC 177,0 19 (dnf) 14 (dnf) 33 13 20 33 20 25
25 FRA 1161 Jean-Louis Treguier, Camille Donnet Bart, Club Nautique de Viry 183,0 29 21 13 25 15 17 30 (35) 33 (dnf)
26 GBR 1010 John Warburton, James Clapham, Royal Torbay YC 186,0 23 (33) 27 27 25 (29) 21 22 28 13
27 GBR 982 Aaron Smith, Alec Rodgers, Wilsonian SC 194,0 18 28 22 29 (30) 19 24 27 27 (dnf)
28 GBR 1072 Jon Bennett, Guy Whittaker 197,0 (31) 22 26 26 29 27 17 26 24 (dnf)
29 GBR 1099 Alistair Hodgson, Penny Hooper, Draycote Water SC 198,0 25 26 29 17 (31) (31) 26 18 31 26
30 GBR 1087 Tim Palmer, Alex Nelson 204,0 24 29 (31) 24 26 28 19 25 29 (dnf)
31 GBR 1005 Ian Jubb, Sarah Martin 210,0 (dns) 25 30 32 20 30 31 24 (ocs) 18
32 GBR 1047 Adam Knight, Nico Ozanne 214,0 (dns) (dnf) 33 28 36 33 25 19 25 15
33 GER 961 Stewart Patience, Felix Krause, Berliner YC 248,0 30 34 25 (dnf) 28 32 29 29 (dnf) dnf
34 GBR 1122 Grahame Smith, Nicola Smith, Wilsonian SC 258,0 35 (dnf) 34 34 34 (37) 36 31 32 22
35 GBR 1121 Paul Blackburn, Phil Burchell, Stokes Bay SC 267,0 (dns) 30 28 31 35 34 (dnf) 32 36 dnf
36 GBR 1015 Simon Payne, Fenella Williams, Oxford SC 270,0 34 32 (35) 33 32 35 35 34 35 (dnf)
37 FRA 1100 Jean-Francois Oger, Philippe Oger, CSAGS 282,0 32 (dnf) 32 30 37 (dnf) 37 36 37 dnf
38 GBR 1066 Clive Everest, Alex Everest, HISC 287,0 33 (dnf) (dnf) dnf dnf dnf dnf dnf 30 19
39 GBR 932 Brian Allen, Claire Allen, Brightlightsea SC 287,0 36 23 (dnf) (dnf) dnf dnf 34 37 34 dnf
40 GER 1191 Andrew Scoones, Lucy Scoones, Echinger SC 323,0 (dns) (dnf) dnf dnf dnf 36 dnf dnf dnf dnf
Programma per le Classifiche delle Regate Veliche ZW, 4.023.087
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