Warsash Sailing Club hosted the penultimate RYA Olympic classes qualifier for the Europe, Finn, Tornado and 470 classes over the weekend of 3-4 November. Due to a lack of wind on Saturday, racing was cancelled for all classes with the exception of the Europes, who managed to complete one race.

Andrea Brewster won the first race of the weekend and went on to dominate the Europe class over the remaining three races on Sunday. Only five Europes were entered, as the weekend was not part of their qualifying series.

Sunday brought better conditions all round with sunshine and a good breeze of 10 knots. The wind was fairly shifty, and with gusts up to 15 knots racing was close with places changing regularly. RYA Team GBR sailors, Rob Wilson and Will Howden continued their good form from last weekend in the Tornado class, and sailed well in the shifty conditions to secure two first places and a second, to finish clear ahead of team mates, Hugh Styles and Adam May.

“Racing was really good and quite interesting, because of the gusts and sometimes wind shifts of 20 degrees, we had to be on our toes, big losses and gains could be made very easily. We were sailing well together and working the conditions to our advantage.” commented Will Howden.

Racing was tight in the 470 class and the final positions came down to a ‘count back’ on the score. RYA Team GBR sailor Graham Vials carried on where he left off in Weymouth the previous weekend, and although still sailing without his regular crew of Dan Newman, he sailed well with ‘stand-in’ Matt Gill to finish with two first places and a third place, just in front of Mark Plummer and Oliver Hawkley.

Graham Vials commented on his performance over the weekend: “we were leading in the first race yesterday but the wind died and the race was cancelled, so I was glad that we went back out today and scored so consistently and won the weekend. It is interesting for me to sail without Dan, but hopefully he will be back in a boat soon and we will start our training programme.”

A good turnout for the Finn class saw 17 boats competing for the top spot. A good result from Dave Mellor, who sailed consistently to finish in second place in all three races, winning the weekend by seven points from Charlie Cumbley.

Overall Results

Finn

1, Dave Mellor (2,2,2) 6 pts

2, Charlie Cumbley (3,9,1) 13 pts

3, Adam Cowling (5,1,7) 13 pts

Europe Class

1, Andrea Brewster ((1),1,1,1) 3 pts

2, Ian Stow ((2),2,2,2) 6 pts

3, Chris Hughes ((DNF),3,DNF,3) 12 pts

Tornado Class

1, Rob Wilson/Will Howden (1,1,2) 4 pts

2, Hugh Styles/Adam May (3,2,1) 6 pts

3, Leigh McMillan/Shane Hughes (2,4,4) 10 pts

470 Class

1, Graham Vials/Matt Gill (1,1,3) 5 pts

2, Mark Plummer/Oliver Hawkley (2,2,1) 5 pts

3, Christina Bassadone/Barbara Watson (4,5,2) 11 pts