20 Europe sailors made the trip to Stokes Bay SC, with the class' usual diverse range of sailors complemented by a strong youth contingent, competing for the inaugural Synergy Marine UK Europe Youth Championship title!
With a leisurely 1pm start time on Saturday, everyone enjoyed the opportunity to rig up, catch up and enjoy the sunshine! The Europe class boasted the biggest fleet at the event, shared with the ever friendly OK and RS300 fleets. It has been great to see such growth in the youth division of the class in recent months, highlighted by a great turnout of youth competitors.
The forecast, showing a weekend of two halves, did not disappoint - sailors launching into sunshine and a light and patchy NW breeze. After a short postponement to allow the wind to settle, racing got under way in 5-10 knots.
After two races and with no sign of the conditions improving, AP over A was flown and the fleet headed ashore. The fleet enjoyed dinner in the club, included in their entry, along with a few beers at the club bar and much talk of just how wet and windy it was going to be on Sunday.
Sunday morning brought the anticipated big breeze, the club's anemometer reading 20-28 knots ahead of racing. Several sailors made the (potentially wise) decision to remain ashore, whilst those who ventured out were rewarded with an epic downwind to the committee boat.
The Europe's were the only fleet to stay out for Race 5, proving that they are great fun and perfectly manageable boats in wind now approaching 30 knots!
Jason and Chris demonstrated incredible upwind speed in these conditions, battling for the lead to secure the top two spots in the race and in the overall standings. John and Jeremy finished third and fourth respectively, with Jeremy sneaking into the overall top three by just one point.
It was great to see so many younger sailors joining the fleet this weekend, many for the first time. Whilst the conditions proved particularly challenging, the big smiles on the faces of the youth sailors certainly injected new enthusiasm into the class - none bigger than Fin Lloyd who battled through two of the races on Sunday to finish third in the youth standings behind the more experienced Europe Youth sailors of Adam and James.
The next and final event for the class this year is the UK Europe Inland Championships at Staunton Harold SC on the 19th / 20th October before we head into some winter sailing - the class building up to an exciting 2025 season hosting the Europe Masters & Youth European Championships at Hayling Island SC in July 2025.
Overall Results:
Pos Sail No Helm Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Pts
1st 430 Jason Belben Stokes Bay Sailing Club 2 2 1 ‑3 1 6
2nd 352 Chris Gill Portishead 4 ‑12 2 1 2 9
3rd 412 Jeremy Hartley Stokes Bay SC 5 1 7 ‑8 4 17
4th 411 Lucy Boreham Chichester Yacht Club 3 4 6 4 (DNC) 17
5th 431 John Rees HISC 1 ‑13 9 5 3 18
6th 392 Adam Catlow LOSSC 7 6 3 2 (DNS) 18
7th 419 Emma Pearson Stokes Bay 8 3 ‑10 10 6 27
8th 413 Alex Scoles Overy Staithe 9 7 4 7 (DNS) 27
9th 387 James Clements PYSC ‑12 8 5 9 7 29
10th 331 Ben Harris Weston SC 17 ‑18 8 6 5 36
11th 151 Finlay Lloyd LOSSC 14 16 11 11 (DNS) 52
12th 425 Richard Eagleton Bexhill Sailing Club 6 9 (DNC) DNC DNC 57
13th 421 Mark Swallow Tudor Sailing Club 16 5 (DNC) DNC DNC 63
14th 332 Harriet Mackin Stokes Bay 11 10 (DNC) DNC DNC 63
15th 416 Luke Lazell Swanage Sailing Club 10 17 (DNC) DNC DNC 69
16th 340 Thomas Peace Warsash SC 18 11 (RET) DNC DNC 71
17th 420 George Cox‑Olliff Brightlingsea/Waldringfield 15 14 (DNC) DNC DNC 71
18th 408 Rory Stretch Clevedon Sailing Club 13 19 (DNC) DNC DNC 74
19th 371 Emily Batterton West Oxfordshire SC (DNF) 15 DNC DNC DNC 78
20th 65 Isabel Ritchie Notts County 19 20 (DNS) DNC DNC 81
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