18ft Skiff European International Championships - Day 3
by Alec Mckinlay 8 Jun 2006 12:16 BST
Perfect Lake Garda conditions on day 3 of the 18ft Skiff European International Championships © Christophe Favreau /
www.christophefavreau.book.fr
If you are interested in skiffs you should be here. Campione, Lake Garda. The biggest fleet of 18’s ever assembled outside Australia, including some of the finest sailors in the class have come together for this year’s European International Championship and today Garda delivered up what it is famous for. Bright blue sunny skies, deep blue iridescent water and, most importantly the wind, a perfect warm force 4 Ora wind blowing straight down the lake as steady as if generated by a giant fan and then of course there are the cliffs soaring 500 ft plus straight out of the lake and generating a wind compression zone that acts like an express elevator up the course which every boat has to take.
What is it like sailing an 18 ft skiff in these conditions? It’s adrenalin pumping, heart thumping, breath takingly brilliant ‘champagne’ sailing. An experience no other class of boat can give. At the top end of a force 4 breeze the boats big rigs are already verging on overpowered as you line up for the start, jockeying to hold a place on the line as near as possible to the committee boat (cliff) end, wrestling with the rig and tiller to keep the boat upright and hold your position then cracking off to hit the line at speed. Then its look for the first lane to tack right to the cliffs and into the additional pressure. As the lift takes hold the main is ragging, virtually inverted as the boats sail almost on jib alone but fast! Apparent wind is over thirty knots and its almost impossible to hear each other speak over the din. Approaching the cliffs threading between boats on starboard tack ‘we’re clear of them – no bear away hard now!’. Threading through a dozen boats closing on you at over twenty knots. Then you’re at the cliffs, hold your tack till the bowsprit almost touches the rocks then throw the boat into a tack and back out into the lake. Further out you leave the compression zone and you want more, you need more to keep moving up the fleet so its back again for another dose, and again short tacking up under the cliffs until you hit the lay line and slot in for the mark. Defend your position, boats trying to slot in on port, boats below and above all going for the same point. At the mark, kicker off, jib eased weight out and back for the bear away and straight into a gybe. Bowsprit almost touching the boat ahead. Fighting the centrifugal force to run across and hit the opposite wing. Kite up before the gybe is complete. Bang! Its full and you’re flying. You’ve rolled another boat then its back to the cliffs in search of more power. Doing 20 knots plus dodging the tail enders still coming up wind, invisible under your kite till the last minute. No good shouting its impossible to hear. A gybe at the cliffs and back for the gate. You’ve over stood and its every muscle straining to get that extra height as the very solid looking committee boat gets closer and closer. Then through for the gybe and the drop at the leeward mark. Then back up wind to do it all again until the finish.
The race officer made the most of the exhilarating conditions and held four short races to make up for races lost on days 1 and 2. Once again it was Howie Hamlin. Mike Martin and Trent Barnabas who showed consummate skill, not always at the front from the start but steadily making their way through the fleet upwind and down with a superb demonstration of top class skiff sailing. Their score for the day: three bullets and a third. It speaks volumes that this third place is currently their discard result.
The fourth bullet of the day went to British team SELS (Ed Browne, Andy Fairley and Graham Oliver) who sailed a faultless race in the third heat, rounding the windward mark third behind James Mears, Matt Gill and Stewart Mears on Pica and GP Covers (Fleming Clausen, Thomas Ebler and Soren Clausen). The order stayed that way till the leeward mark where in the challenging conditions both Pica then GP Covers capsized allowing SELS through to take the lead they held to the finish from the Italian Elcotec team of Stefano Lagi, ??? and ??? and Pegasus. Regrettably, a lap later Pica’s mast, which had been damaged in an incident with a truck on the way to Garda, collapsed. Prematurely ending the regatta for the team who seemed to be just finding their form.
Australian’s John Winning, Andrew Hay and Geoff Bauchop on Yandoo revelled in the fresh conditions posting two second places and after receiving redress after a protest moved up to second position on the leaderboard. The other Australian team of Grant Rollerson, Raphael Grenn and Warren Sare on De Longhi had an excellent day with three top five results consolidating their position in third ahead of GP Covers in fourth and the top placed British boat Base 1 (Rob Dulson, Paul Constable and Alec Mckinlay) in fifth overall.