29er Eurocup Round 1 at Cavalier, France
by Dave Hall, Ovington Boats 19 Apr 2006 11:50 BST
The small town of Cavalier near Le Lavandou in the South of France was the venue for the first round of the 2006 29er Eurocup. Held over the Easter break 30 boats from Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark and Great Britain made the trip to what turned out to be a superb long weekends sailing. Racing was held just off the beach in the bay.
Day one brought an easterly breeze over the headland making for difficult decisions going into the windward mark. Paul Brotherton & Mari Shepherd showed their hand early by winning the first 2 races. A further 2 races out of the 6 scheduled were sailed until the wind faded away.
Day 2 arrived with the same wind direction if a little stronger and not so much sun. The tricky puffy conditions meant that Brotherton / Shepherd did not get it all their own way. The German team of Benni Friedhoff & Johana Munding put an impressive score line including a win as did the Danish team of Oliver Regniter & Anders Thomson. The only other boat to win a race all regatta was another German team of Jan Hauke Erichsen & Simon Gerling, Although the wind was very patchy the race team managed to get 6 races in leaving 4 to do on the final day.
The final day brought bright sunshine and a westerly breeze from the opposite headland along with the threat of very strong winds. However the wind backed to the south west and an amazing 12 – 15 knots blew in clean from the sea. Four amazing races in the sun and wind were held. Brotherton & Shepherd romped away to win every race, the only struggle they had was at the last mark of the last race when a tussle with Regnitzer / Thomsen and Hall /Hall resulted in the Danish team doing turns. The increase in wind brought a few changes to the front of the fleet, some of the teams who struggled in the light came to the front and visa versa.
A big thank you must go to the German class association who along with their coaches, the sailing school and the French 29er dealer ran the whole event.
We will be back next year!
Overall Results: (top 10)
| Pos | Sail No | Helm & Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | R13 | R14 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | GBR 1159 | Brotherton, Paul, Shepherd, Mari, | 1 | 1 | -5 | 1 | 1 | -5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| 2 | GER 1105 | Friedhoff, Benjamin, Munding, Johanna, | 2 | 2 | -8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | -13 | 37 |
| 3 | DEN 959 | Regnitzer, Oliver, Thomsen, Anders, | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 | -9 | 4 | -14 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 45 |
| 4 | GER 989 | Erichsen, Jan Hauke, Gerling, Simon, | -13 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 4 | -14 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 62 |
| 5 | GBR 342 | White, Sophie, Fielder, Andrew, | -12 | 6 | 7 | 12 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 3 | -13 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 74 |
| 6 | SUI 9 | Keller, Nathalie, Hotz, Irina, | 9 | -13 | 2 | -17 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 4 | 6 | 80 |
| 7 | GER 955 | Jepsen, Niklas, Jepsen, Maui, | 6 | 9 | 6 | -21 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 8 | (dq) | 10 | 11 | 89 |
| 8 | GBR 777 | Hall, David, Hall, Laura, | 3 | 12 | 13 | 7 | 13 | 11 | (cs) | -15 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 92 |
| 9 | GER 1072 | Beucke, Kerstin, Beucke, Susann, | -20 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 7 | -14 | 2 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 104 |
| 10 | FRA 57 | Cadre, Alain, Cadre, Francois, | 7 | -18 | 16 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 9 | (dq) | 6 | 9 | 14 | 4 | 13 | 8 | 110 |