B14 Europeans at Lake Garda - Day 2
by B14 Class Association 14 Jul 2023 21:40 BST
13-15 July 2023
The B14 fleet were treated to more glorious conditions in sailor heaven with warm sunshine, winds peaking at 15 knots and the usual stunning scenery. It remained tricky sailing though with the Ora never quite blasting and filling with holes as the day progressed.
The racing was very close with too many place changes to report, at least 10 boats held the lead across the 3 races. Nick Craig/Tobytastic moved into an overnight lead with 2,2,1. Australian Champs Craig Garmston/Paul Fleming gave the fleet a masterclass in Down Under windy sailing in the opener with a big win and were in the hunt in the last two races with a pair of 3rds to move up to 2nd overall overnight. The GOAT Mark Barnes/Simon Reynolds were pushing for the lead in most races to score 4,8,2 and hold 3rd overnight and a close 2nd in the European part of the champs. Adding in corrected scoring for Bellendio Factore, the GOAT leads by a considerable margin.
Not be outdone by the Aussie display of full power upwind pace, Mark Watts/Matt Johnson also blasted away upwind in race 3 for a big win sandwiched between a 7th and 4th to hold 4th overnight but very close to the leaders on points.
Aussies Joey Randall/Louis Chapman had moments of brilliance as well as navigational errors to peak in 3rd place.
There was a gain feature with more pressure on the right upwind lay line for most of the day. Ever popular class chair Crispin Taylor/Guy Harrill correctly spotted new pressure emerging on the left of the penultimate beat of the last race and nearly sailed around all of the top 6 who were searching for the gain feature out right. The leaders all headed left up the last beat in the new pressure only for Garmo/Fleming to reverse the Taylor/Farril trick by hitting hard right and nearly taking all the leaders with the GOAT just pipping them on the finish line.
The excellent race team commenced the starting sequence for race 5 but with the wind becoming even more unstable, they rightly sent the fleet ashore for the tasty pasta party with Aperol and beer.
The fleet enjoyed Wind's bar until the early hours last night but with a 9am start and 4 races scheduled tomorrow, there may be some tactical early nights!