Ruairidh Scott comes to the top 1720 Europeans

by Becci Eplett on 10 Sep 2005 Three races of the Murphy & Nye 1720 European Championships were sailed on Lake Garda under the auspices of the Race Committee at Fraglia Vela Riva. After a short postponement to allow the Ora breeze to kick in all three races were sailed in very tricky and unusually shifty conditions, with the breeze up and down anywhere between 6 and 15 knots.

Race four saw John Cooper and Bill Vance 'Oi! cross the finish line first having lead from the off after a blistering start on port. Ruairidh Scott was second in King Quick and Mike Evans sailing with Adam Winkelmann in Yoke was third.

Scott showed his metal in Race five and sailed himself into first place with Anthony O’Leary in Antix taking second from Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell and Des Faherty in Aquatack keeping the Irish flag flying in third place.

Simon Blake and his talented and popular young crew in Sworded Fish won the final race of the day, Race six of this eleven race series. This victory is all the more impressive as this is their first year in a 1720. Charles Swingland, another newcomer to the fleet was quite rightly delighted by his second place in Dark Side and Ruairidh was clearly not too disappointed with a solid third.

So a great day at the office for Ruairidh and the King Quick team. Scott now leads the fleet as we go into Day three with local boy Robert Eckstein in second and Prof O'Connell third. If you’ve not heard it before I’ll tell you the one about the Italian, the Irishman and the Scotsman at the end of racing tomorrow.

Overall leaders after 6 races:
1 GBR 1777 SCOTT RUAIRIDH 11,5pts
2 ITA 1720 ECKSTEIN ROBERT 29,0
3 IRL 1804 O'CONNELL MAURICE 35,0
4 GBR 1715 COOPER JOHN 35,8
5 GBR 1741 SMITH ANDREW 37,0
6 IRL 1759 CLARKE CONOR 37,8
7 GBR 1767 BLAKE SIMON 43,8
8 GBR 1797 SWINGLAND CHARLES 44,0
9 GBR 1742 BAKER DARREN 44,0
10 GBR 1785 ATKINS IAN 50,0