The Europe stand with boats and helpers

We had Dave Kent's almost brand new boat on the stand, as well as Feargal Finlay's ex-Olympic boat on its side at the back of the stand. The see-through sail on Dave's boat (given us by Charles Ainsworth of IBI Sailing) attracted interest and looked good on the stand. Chris Wilkinson set up the video from the 2006 Worlds at Copenhagen - using the bottom of Feargal's boat as a shiny projection screen.

There was much interest in the progress of the class from the numerous visitors as well as from Yachts & Yachting and Dinghy Magazine, so look out in their show reports for a mention of the Europe.

Latest on the new RMW Europe

Unfortunately the new RMW boat could not be ready in time, but RMW is in the process of finishing the tooling and provided an information leaflet for distribution at the show from which the following information is taken. The hull plug has been checked using an aluminium measurement jig and RMW are confident that it will pass the new Hull Rules. The construction of the entire boat will be in vacuum consolidated epoxy glass foam sandwich ensuring a new level of stiffness and durability while meeting the class minimum weight and gyration test.

Preparation for RMW's new Europe dinghy

The boat will be available in a complete ready to race form with a high standard of fit out with the best rig from around the world. Boats are now expected to be available for delivery from the end of April 2007 at a price of £5,500 complete (including VAT).  More information from RMW Marine.

Meanwhile back at the show, Katie Mapplebeck, as an RYA Racing Coach, had an appointment for a coach-to-coach one-to-one in the Coach Development area of the show with one of the Olympic performance coaches.  However, faced both with a choice of coach to meet with - Harvey Hilary, Mark Rushall or Adam Bowers - and then what topic to cover when she did, she remembered a presentation Adam had given at a 2002 conference in Lincolnshire about Sail and Rig Tuning. As with so many such presentations, the ideas are better applied in practice with a boat and some sailors on hand. So, she thought of asking him to come to the stand.

Adam Bowers takes a class on sail trim

Fortunately, the RYA were OK with this plan, and we managed to get the see-through sail de-rigged and quickly put up a proper one.  To provide some feedback to Alan Olive of the RYA we produced a collage of photos of Adam taking the session. You can download a copy here (240KB PDF file). Adam's session on sail trim apparently resulted in a run on tell-tales at the chandlery stands!

Altogether this was another successful show for the Europe class. Thanks go to Chris Wilkinson for the organisation, to Feargal Finlay and Dave Kent for providing boats, and to Jane Stevens, Katie, Gill and Tony Mapplebeck and Paul Wiseman who all helped out on the stand during the weekend.