Butler and Sutcliffe (GBR) confirm Hobie Title
by Diana Bogaards on 1 Aug 2007
Adam Butler and Gilly Sutcliffe won the Hobie Dragoon Europeans 2007 Pierrick Contin/Hobie Cat
On Tuesday July 31, the British Adam Butler and Gilly Sutcliffe won the Hobie Dragoon Europeans 2007. Although they dominated the competition, their victory was not taken for granted this morning.
After a day and night of strong onshore wind, the surf was huge with a light north-westerly breeze. All boats experienced difficulties sailing through the breakers, but eight out of nine Dragoon-teams succeeded. James Henson and Oliver Amphlett (GBR) performed strongly with three seconds, which pushed them to the second place overall. The French boys Antoine Bezile and Quintin le Tallec won bronze.
'It feels great', responded Gilly Sutcliffe happily to the congratulations of winning the European title. At the beginning of the championship, Butler announced that this would be their last Hobie Dragoon event, as they will continue on the Hobie 16 with spinnaker.
Sutcliffe about their final day: 'The conditions were light, in which we did not do very well. We won the last race and finished fourth and third in the others.' While almost running the Hobie Dragoon towards the dunes, Sutcliffe recalled the spectacular morning. 'That was exciting. We managed just about the stay upright in the surf. I don’t think we have ever gone to such high breakers. It was pretty impressive.'
Silver medallist Oliver Amphlett (14) called it ‘quiet scary’, but according to his skipper James Henson (12) they crossed the surf ‘pretty safely’. They had a good afternoon with three seconds.
Henson: 'There was a strong tide going from the right to the left.' Amphlett continues: 'That affected the lay-line a bit. We used the current to drift to the mark, so we tacked halfway the course.'
The teenagers had a fierce battle with Butler/Sutcliffe and the French duo Bezile/Le Tallec. Henson: 'It was close racing, much closer than on the other days.'
Henson and Amphlett will continue one more year in the Hobie Dragoon class, before they move on to the next phase. Henson: 'Our goal is to go to the ISAF Youth Worlds.'
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