6 Metre European Championship at Brunnen, Switzerland - Day 3
by Fiona Brown 19 Jul 2016 19:35 BST
14-19 July 2016
6 Metre Europeans in Switzerland day 3 © Gilles Favez /
www.gillesfavez.ch
Gorgeous weather for the sailors in Brunnen
Since the start of the International 6 Metre European Championship Lake Lucerne has been presenting herself in the very best light possible. The sailors have been greeted with plenty of sunshine and winds of between 8 and 16 knots. With just one more day of racing to come, six of the eight races scheduled have been completed and this year's European Championship is well on track. Day three of racing saw two more races sailed in glorious conditions that allowed the crews to show off the true beauty and power of 6 Metre racing.
Swiss continue to lead Open Division
The Europeans are raced in two categories: the Classics for yachts built before 1965 and the Open Division. In the later Swiss Skipper Jean-Luc Monnard on Junior continued to sail very consistently adding another first and second to his scorecard, which means he now has a comfortable overall lead of 6 points. US boat Sting with Russ Siilvestri at the helm also scored a second and first, which puts him into second place on twelve points. Paul Smith's Valhalla from Great Britain managed to defend her third position despite finishing twelfth in race five, his worst results of the series so far, before coming back with a third in race six. Valhalla is on twenty-two points, ten behind Sting but only two points ahead of fourth placed Courage IX, owned by Norbert Stadler.
New leader in the Classic Division
In the Classic division it was all change as second placed Nada from Great Britain with Skipper Poul Hoj-Jensen won race five and finished third in race six to move up into the overall lead by a single point from US competitor Llanoria with Eric Jespersen at the helm. Third place in the Classic Division going into the final day's racing is filled by Henrik Andersin's Djinn of Finland who sits eight points behind Llanoria and just one point ahead of fourth placed Flapper, owned by Lars Guck of Norway.
Two races remain to be sailed on the final day of the Championship and we can look forward to a terrific finale to what has already been an excellent championship. With six race now sailed the yachts will discard their worst score, and if all 8 races are sailed they will discard their worst two scores.
Results can be found here.