Europe Open at Staunton Harold Sailing Club

Europes at Staunton Harold © George Cramming

Europes at Staunton Harold © George Cramming

After a week at work sweltering in the 30 degree sunshine, 15 Europe sailors turned up to Staunton Harold SC for the weekend to race in the first open meeting after the Nationals, to be met with 20 degrees, a bit of sunshine, 8-12 knots forecast and seemingly the only place in the UK not forecast to have torrential rain over the weekend, sadly a few could not join the fleet due to having to self-isolate.

On Saturday the racing was shared with an Aero open, who started first, which allowed the Europe's to be shown around the lake - the race officer Nigel Pepperdine started promptly setting a course around the club marks - everyone needed to take a map and pen & paper out with them to ensure they knew where they were going. Lucy Boreham managed to break away from a large chasing group in race 1, only to get the course wrong on the 2nd lap to allow both Mandy Horton & Alex Scoles through, at the last gybe mark Mandy had the misfortune of breaking her tiller extension going into the gybe dropping back to 3rd with Alex taking the win ahead of Lucy. A close battle behind for 4th & 5th by locals Joe Penhaul Smith & George Crammond lead the rest of the fleet over the finish line.

Race 2 had a different course, with slightly less marks in it, another close fought affair between Mandy, Alex & Lucy with Mandy coming out on top.

The fleet came ashore for a lunch break, with the club putting on a superb lunch and the sun had come out, allowing everyone to eat outside and discuss the morning races.

The afternoon saw another two back to back races, with two different courses - Nigel was certainly keeping the fleet on its toes with having to check the course before each start. Jon Tweedle found his mojo in the afternoon, grabbing a 2nd in race 3 and a closely fought for 3rd just ahead of Lucy in race 4. Alex showed the fleet the speed of his home built boat winning both races. The wind had picked up sufficiently in race 4 to allow the pumping flag to go up.

Europes at Staunton Harold - photo © Michael Giles

Staunton Harold put on a great evening dinner and the bar was open, with everyone being able to sit outside to eat and chat about the days racing, ask advice and swap tips - one of the things the class works hard at is to try to assist those new into the boat to get up to speed and learn the quirks and specialities of the boat.

Sunday dawned initially very light, but Nigel was confident that the wind would fill in and the 1st race started in a light but stable breeze - the downwind leg into a corner of the lake became a bit of a lottery, not helped by a group of 7 boats all arriving at the leeward mark together with the rest of the fleet rapidly catching, making for a bit of snakes and ladders, Lucy Boreham, Alex Scoles & Richard Major found the ladders and escaped the corner as a top 3 and finished in that order, with the rest of the fleet very close together for the remainder of the race. Alex's 2nd secured him the overall win.

The final race saw a dying breeze with the sailors needing to keep the boat out of the many holes and try to work out what the shifts were doing. Lucy & Alex popped out the front of a group of 8 boats to have a close battle which went down the last 10 metres, with Lucy picking up a big lift to just cross the line in front. Richard had a consistent day in the lighter winds, securing another 3rd ahead of Joe and Kahla Delaney.

The overall win went to Alex, Lucy's two wins on day 2 gave her 2nd with Mandy in 3rd. It was close between Joe & Jon for 4th & 5th - with Joe coming out best - maybe something to do with the rather large rum measures that Joe had poured Jon the evening before?

The battle of the Morley family was won by Dad Malcom over Hamish and it was great to see some new faces, with Roz Nickols and Faz Kemp coming along to their first event.

The fleet packed away and enjoyed another great lunch put on by the club, with the prize-giving following what is becoming a class staple - of no one goes away without a prize (mostly alcoholic this time!) Next event is at Weston on the 7/8th August, followed by the Inland championships at Draycote water 11/12th September and Stokes Bay 2/3rd October - all three forming part of the National Ranking events to see who comes out on top for 2021.

Overall Results: