Weston 8th October 2006

There was a slightly disappointing turnout of eight Europers at Weston, injuries and work accounting for several absentees. However Peter Ruff made a welcome return to the water, and Chris Hughes came out of Europe-retirement to sail Ian Stow's boat. Newcomer Chris Hutchings was at his first ever Europe open event, sailing the all wood, all varnished K76. In spite of the numbers the racing was good and hard as usual.

Conditions started as fairly breezy and fairly lumpy, and generally progressed through the day towards very breezy and distinctly lumpy.  The first race had Richard Eagleton and Peter leading the way, Peter rounded the top mark first, but then went too high on the first reach of the triangle/sausage course, letting Richard through at the gybe. On the second beat, Richard ran out of steam, and Peter sailed past him followed by Chris Hughes and Dave Kent. Chris was getting into top gear and gradually overhauled Peter, while Dave hung on to third in spite of a capsize and acrobatic recovery from the wrong side of the boat just before the last mark.

The start line of race two tempted some of the fleet towards the port end, where Chris Hughes got away cleanly. Richard was next towards that end, and followed Chris up the left hand side. Peter was at the wrong end, and Dave tried briefly with an ultra-short tiller extension (so much less to get in the way when you capsize) before returning to shore for a replacement. Meanwhile Chris increased his lead when Richard missed his toe-straps completely when tacking close to the committee boat. Chris's lead was almost a complete leg by the end, Richard a distant second with Peter third.

By the third race the fleet was somewhat depleted, but the closest race of the day at the front saw Chris Hughes and a fully-extended Dave within a couple of boat lengths for the first two or three laps. Peter in third place was being chased hard by Richard, but Richard eventually succumbed to the old adage of youth before beauty, and settled for a safe fourth place. On the final lap Chris extended his lead over Dave to finish a good day's sailing with three comfortable firsts. The second place overall was decided by Dave's better result in the last race, putting Peter into third, while Richard was consigned to the bargain basement.

Chris Wilkinson was having a hard time struggling with the toe-strap arrangement on his borrowed boat. Katie Mapplebeck's day was marred by gear problems and Chris Hutchings gallantly dominated last place in between swims. Jane Stevens finished the day early, to ponder on the problems posed by the short steep seas of Southampton Water.