Report on meeting at Royal Findhorn Yacht Club, 3-4 July 2004

The Europes joined the slow handicap class at the Royal Findhorn Yacht Club on 3rd and 4th July with courses set within the bay. Findhorn Bay is a miniature of Chichester Harbour with fast running tides as the bay fills and empties through a narrow channel to the Moray Firth.

Saturday's racing started an hour and a half before high water with the tide still sluicing past the committee boat in an accompanying light and variable North Westerly breeze. Val Ludlow from Port Edgar showed her experience and, having studied the bay at low tide early that morning, made a textbook start, staying upwind and uptide until seconds before the gun before heading to the less adverse side of the course. No one else got it right and the rest of the fleet struggled to cross the start line while Val picked up what zephyrs of wind there were to clear the windward mark with a commanding lead. Local Europe sailor Neil Fraser made it next but not close enough to Val to make an impact. Ted Stroud from the local club and Brian Finnie from Loch Tummel eventually crossed the start some 25 minutes after the gun. No other boats came near to catching Val, who finished ahead of the entire fleet to take the first race convincingly from Neil. Ted and Brian trailed in later to take third and fourth places in the Europe class.

Saturday's second race got under way almost immediately in a slightly stronger breeze, but with the tide still flooding. With the wind filling in from a more westerly direction the first leg turned into almost a single fetch. Val once again made the perfect start on the biased line, made the windward mark on the first attempt, and kept this lead to finish once again the first boat of the entire fleet. Neil worked hard to catch Val but started to lose ground on the downwind leg. Investigation showed that the brakes were being applied by a large quantity of seaweed round his rudder. By the time Neil managed to clear the weed he was back with Ted and Brian, but kept his relative place to finish second Europe home. On the final leg to the finish Brian took a short tack across the turning tide and sailed free to cross Ted just before the line.

Sunday's forecast was for a 10 to 12 knot breeze from the North West, but by the time of the first race the wind had again dropped to light and variable. Learning from Saturday, the fleet stayed close to the line, but a wind shift to the North had the Race Officer move the outer distance mark further upwind leaving a lot of boats further downtide than they had planned. Val still achieved the perfect start leaving the fleet struggling yet again to make the line. The next 25 minutes of shifting light wind led to a classic lottery, leaving Val downwind in an unfavourable shift, which allowed Neil and Brian to make up nearly all the distance lost at the start. The three Europes arrived at the windward mark together, with Val just managing to get round the mark ahead. Another drop in the wind left Brian and Neil concentrating on getting past the mark in the fast running tide, while Val headed safely onwards where she stayed in front until the finish. Brian led Neil round the next two offwind legs until Neil's superior speed on the final windward leg left Brian well behind. Ted never recovered from being left at the start and trailed home in fourth place.

The breeze freshened with a vengeance for the final race on Sunday and Race Officer Iona Cornish set a Windward-Leeward course. The windward mark was still in the same position as for the previous light wind race, so boats stayed close together, making it difficult for the Europes to avoid bad air from supposedly faster boats in the handicap class. After the start, Val was unable to shake off a Laser on her bow, allowing Neil and Ted to chose the better side for the first beat. Val was less happy in the stronger breeze and needed to depower the rig and lift the board to stay balanced. Neil found the conditions to his liking and made the windward mark just ahead, followed closely by Ted and Val. Brian rounded some way behind, wondering yet again how to improve his windward speed. The leading three Europes kept their order for the next two laps but, with the wind starting to drop again, Val passed Ted on the penultimate lap and was able to concentrate on catching Neil. Neil was still ahead at the leeward mark and he covered Val almost to the finish but, with the wind staying light, Val was sailing faster and finally broke out to cross ahead on the last tack before the line, taking her fourth first place of the meeting, including once again being the first boat home of the entire fleet. While the two leading Europes were competing with each other up the centre of the channel, Ted had sailed out to the edge of the course to look for help from the tide, which by now had turned and should have favoured a long tack out to the left side. This nearly worked but a large piece of wood jammed in his rudder put a stop to Ted's plan and he stayed in third place but still finished well ahead of Brian.

Although the racing was close at times, Val Ludlow was a convincing winner in varied and difficult conditions and Neil a deserving runner up. Val and Neil also took first and second places overall in the regatta slow handicap, flying the flag for the Europe class in the face of competition from 4.7 through to standard rig Lasers, Topper, Comet, Super Novas, and a variety of two handed dinghies.

Despite the frustrations from the tide and weather this was a good weekend. Findhorn Bay proved to be a challenging venue and the Royal Findhorn Yacht Club offered superb facilities. For non-participants or families the local beach was long and clean.

Brian Finnie GBR348 (with thanks again to Val Ludlow for her notes from the front)