IOM European Championship - Full action on day 2 + Video

by Dean Miculinic on 21 Nov 2012 At the 2012 IOM European Championship, the skies cleared this morning here in Cres, Croatia and the 74 athletes competing prepared their boats from early on, since the first start was scheduled at 9am. A tiring day awaited them with 15 races scheduled for the five heats that the fleet was divided. First would start Heat E with the top four boats advancing in Heat A for the second race and the next two in Heat B. Same procedure would follow for the rest four Heats in order for the first round to be completed.

The first races took place at the course that was located in front of the venue, with the wind being extremely light, forcing that way the race committee to cancel some races several times after they have started. Nonetheless, three heats were completed with the favorites qualifying to the Heat A.

Then the race committee decided to move the course area to the northern side of the venue where the wind was more stable and stronger. Now the competitors should be more careful since wind gusts often reached 15 knots making life harder for many of them.

After that the second race for Heat E started and now the top three athletes advanced in Heat D. Then the top three of Heat D would qualify for Heat C and so on until the top three of Heat B advance in Heat A and race with the best of this Championship. That way the order of finish in Heat A would score as points and the overall ranking would form.

At the end it was Britain’s Brad Gibson that scored two bullets and is now leading the fleet. In second place is Alexis Carre from France just one point in front of Graham Elliott from the UK.

Tomorrow the heavy schedule continues with another 15 races scheduled plus the ones missed today. So it is a day not to be missed.

Position	Skipper	Sail #	Club/City	Hull	Freq		Score	1	2	3	4	5
1	Brad Gibson	42	United Kingdom	Britpop	2.4 Ghz		5.0	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.0	1.0
2	Alexis Carre	73	France	Britpop	2.4 GHz		6.0	1.0	2.0	4.0	1.0	2.0
3	Marko Matic	85	Croatia	Fraktal	2.4 GHz		15.0	4.0	4.0	3.0	4.0	8.0
4	Pierluigi Puthod	22	Italy	Britpop	2.4 GHz		16.0	1.0	12.0	9.0	2.0	4.0
5	Olivier Cohen	100	France	Britpop	2.4 GHz		18.0	2.0	5.0	1.0	10.0	11.0
6	Graham Elliott	09	United Kingdom	Britpop	2.4 GHz		21.0	1.0	3.0	8.0	12.0	9.0
7	Zvonko Jelacic	35	Croatia	Kantun	2.4 GHz		22.0	2.0	6.0	7.0	7.0	10.0
8	Tony Edwards	89	United Kingdom	Britpop	2.4 Ghz		26.0	3.0	11.0	11.0	9.0	3.0
9	Robert Matulja	33	Croatia	Kantun	2.4 GHz		32.0	3.0	20.0	6.0	16.0	7.0
10	Mario Škrlj	82	Croatia	Topiko	2.4 GHz		34.0	10.0	40.0	5.0	5.0	14.0
11	Josh King	26	United Kingdom	Britpop	2.4 GHz		35.0	5.0	27.0	18.0	6.0	6.0