Lake Garda produced a totally new set of challenges for the B14 world championship crews on day three of the regatta on Friday 14 September, 2001. After a delayed start, racing got under way in a moderate to fresh northerly with bursts of heavy rain punctuated by thunder and lightning rolling out of the mountains. The wind was swinging 30 degrees with no obvious way of predicting the shifts. With the flat water the crews were able to push their boats to maximum velocity and this produced the closest racing of the week.

In the first race Jonny Ellis and Spike Daniels (GBR 733) led out of the left hand corner to round narrowly ahead of Chris Allen and Dan Ayton (GBR 693) with Steve Lovegrove and Shaun Barber (GBR 762) close on their heels. By the bottom of a blistering run Tim Fells and Richard Dowsett (GBR 758) had moved into third with stars of day two Matt Searle and Richard Bell (GBR 725) close behind.

These led four boats played a tight covering game on the next beat and rounded the final mark together. A number of shabby hoists allowed Fells / Dowsett to take the initiative and lead the charge to the finish. Ellis / Daniels crossed second to be greeted by silence giving second place to Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer (GBR 749) who had made a last run charge through the fleet together with Chris Sallis and Dick Roe (GBR 645) in third. Lovegrove / Barber maintained their title challenge with a fourth.

Race two started in 18-20 knots and was led out of the left corner by Jono Pank and Richard Edwards (GBR 746) rounding narrowly ahead of Lovegrove / Barber and Fells / Dowsett. The first run was at terminal velocity and Fells / Dowsett came through to lead at the bottom, taking the right-hand mark and heading out to the left-hand corner. The chasing pack of boats rounded the left mark and found a big shift on the right side of the beat with Lovegrove / Barber extending a good lead at the top mark. On the final run, once again Hayes / Dwyer came through the pack to grab second place at the line ahead of Pank / Edwards and the consistent Snedker / Dobrijevic keeping their title hopes alive in fourth. Sallis / Roe rounded off an excellent day in fifth.

The positions at the top of the table have closed up with the top five boats still in the title chase and set for a grand finale on Sunday.

Results (with two discards)

1st GBR 758 Tim Fells and Richard Dowsett (2,5,2,1,16,1,9) 20 pts

2nd GBR 762 Steve Lovegrove and Shaun Barber (1,9,23,4,2,4,1) 21 pts

3rd GBR 736 Matt Snedker and Dave Dobrijevic (4,2,1,10,4,8,4) 23 pts

4th GBR 749 Dave Hayes and Sean Dwyer (9,4,6,11,3,2,2) 26 pts

5th GBR 725 Matt Searle and Richard Bell (15,3,17,2,1,5,7) 33 pts

6th GBR 746 Jono Pank and Richard Edwards (12,7,7,3,DNF,6,3) 38 pts

7th GBR 645 Chris Sallis and Dick Roe (7,20,5,14,12,3,5) 46 pts

8th GBR 756 Jason Andrews and Marcus Lynch (3,6,8,7,11,11,11) 46 pts

9th GBR 734 Steve Fisher and Neil Barber (6,22,9,12,5,7,10) 49 pts

10th GBR 733 Jonny Ellis and Spike Daniels (8,15,18,6,6,OCS,6) 59 pts