Yesterday (Wednesday) marked the start of the Europe class world championships in Canada, sailing from the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club on the western edge of Lake Ontario in Hamilton Harbour.

A total of109 boats have congregated in the women’s Europe class, which has been an Olympic class for singlehanded female crews since the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992.

Racing got underway on day one in perfect conditions of 10-15 knots of wind. Racing took place in two groups and after two races it was Siren Sundby of Norway and Sari Multala of Finland that came out on top, both scoring two race wins in their respective groups.

RYA team GBR sailors made a steady start with both Kirsty Bonar and Debbie Winstanley showing promise and scoring a top ten result in one of the two races of the day. Bonar is currently lying in 24th place overall after scoring a 17th and a seventh place and after scoring a sixth and a 26th Winstanley is in 30th place. Bryony Percy finished day one with a total score of 41 points, which placed her in 43rd position overall.

Racing continues through until Tuesday 3 September. Twelve races are scheduled with racing taking place in groups (that are reallocated at the end of each day) until the 1 September, the groups will then be split into gold, silver and bronze and competitors will sail in a final series of racing from the 2-3 September. The winner of the gold group will be crowned the 2002 Europe class world champion.

Results (day 1)

1, Siren Sundby, NOR (1,1) 2 pts

2, Sari Multala, FIN (1,1) 2 pts

3, Sarah Blanck, AUS (2,3) 5 pts

GBR

24, Kirsty Bonar (17,7) 24 pts

30, Debbie Winstanley (6,26) 32 pts

43, Bryony Percy (15,26) 41 pts

52, Andrea Brewster (31,23) 54 pts

53, Laura Baldwin (23,31) 54 pts

80, Kit Stenhouse (44,37) 81 pts

97, Natalie Lloyd (47,48) 95 pts