RS700 Salcombe Gin Eurocup at Yacht Club de Carnac - Days 1-3
by Roland Smith 6 Jun 2022 16:28 BST
3-6 June 2022
Salcombe Gin Eurocup at Carnac day 2 © Antoine Dujoncquoy
The RS700 fleet met for the Jubilee weekend (3rd to 6th June) at Carnac Yacht Club for the 2022 Salcombe Gin EuroCup event.
Day One (3 June)
Day one started with a steady 6-8 knots from the North. Pete Purkiss demonstrated his light wind prowess by pulling out an early lead. Matt Carter collected a large clump of weed, stopped dead, allowing Roland Smith to ease through. Once Matt had sorted himself, he was able to recover second on the last downwind leg.
For race two the wind dropped to 4-6 knots. Pete again opened up a commanding lead. Matt had a nip and tuck tussle with Axel de Blay de Gaix, with Matt just getting the advantage at the line.
Day one finished with Pete in a commanding position ahead of Matt, but then with four sailors all sharing third place.
Day Two (4 June)
A forecast of light winds meant the Race Officers delayed racing until 3pm.
Race three was held in 6 - 8 knots. The pattern of day one was repeated with Pete pulling out a commanding lead with Matt besting Axel for second. A wind shift and gust shortly before the finish meant that the run to the line was very tight for spinnakers. Guy Boullenger tried to carry, closely followed by Roland. Guy failed and capsized just short of the line, forcing Roland into an emergency bear away which he also couldn't survive. Another tussle emerged between John Lawson and Steve Carr when they both came around the final leeward mark and tried to carry their kite to the line. Neither managed it with John trying to flog his kite and Steve struggling to get his kite down. Steve eventually crossed the line a boat length ahead of John.
With time moving on the Race Officers were keen to get in a second race during the day. A shifting 6-8 knots breeze resulted in a reset of the start line and the RS700s starting directly into the RS800s approaching the leeward mark. Immediately after the start, the wind went round about 70 degrees allowing the windward mark to be made in one. Matt and Curtis Drew tacked away from the RS800s into clear air and Matt gained a significant lead. However at the end of the first lap, Matt thought the race had been abandoned and headed for the shore. With the wind direction holding steady and filling to 8-10 knots for the second lap, Matt's departure left Roland to lead the fleet round the second lap and take his first RS700 event win.
Day Three (5 June)
After two days of light wind, Pete had a commanding position holding three bullets. However with a steady 12-16 knots all day, the advantage would swing towards the heavier sailors.
Four races were held with Matt Carter now able to show his stuff, taking all four races with Pete in second. Behind them Roland was able to gain some separation over the fleet. Curtis Drew demonstrated some sparkling speed occasionally let down by a few capsizes.
Results can be found at www.yccarnac.com/regates-morbihan/europeen-rs-2022