BRIT DAVE COLES 3RD GRAND MASTER AT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016
Brit on podium alert – Dave Coles secures 3rd place in the Grand Master division at the European Youth & Masters Formula Championships 2016 in Portugal and gives us this report –
“First, long road trip of the year as we headed down to Portimao in Portugal for the Formula Youth And Master Europeans Championships, after a three-day drive we arrived to find gales and a very rough sea state so was unable to sail for a couple of days until it passed finally on the third day.
I manage to get out for a sail in the harbour as the sea was still too rough to head out, day four and the conditions were perfect for formula sailing some of the guys from Portugal were starting to arrive. The course was laid for some practice racing followed by some long beats up along the Algarve coast, and some great long down wind runs past the cliffs and caves, just great sailing which we had for the next four days.
Finally, the first day of racing arrived and was totally unsure how I was going as at times, when we were training things felt really good and next I would struggle to stay with the other guys. They were so fast but by the end of the fist day was laying in 3rd place one point of second and 1st grand master.
Day 2 and reality kicks back in conditions were tough with the wind changing direction by 40 degrees and going from 10 to 20 knots and never got it right all day although my results were constant. Other sailors would have a great result in one race followed by a disaster in the next; I could have done with a lucky one just to keep me near the front but never got it.
Day 3 and the wind never arrived, but no one was complaining as we were all glad of the rest after day 2.
Day 4 and we thought the second day was tough, this was to be even harder, the first race of the day was in light winds with a 2-foot swell coming in with the wind but a large swell coming from the other direction, making conditions really difficult to sail in. Some of the worst I have ever sailed in, we were still on 11.5 and 12.5 rigs with wind gusting up to 28 knots and a crazy sea.
I was just pleased to get through the day, racing finished about 8.45 and by the time we had de-rigged it was about 10 pm and dark, tough day but was now in a better placed as Bruno Strauss from Latvia who was only a few points behind had a DNF in one race followed by a broken mast in the next after a collision.
Last day and had a 16 point lead over the next guy in the Grandmaster fleet Andrea Volpini Italy 251 this guy always beats me by a couple of points and keeps me off the podium. So the plan was to stick to him like glue to make sure of no big mistakes and to gain my first podium result at an International Formula event.
Although the goal was to beat Andria and to get on the podium at this event, I felt I should have sailed better. However, with the wind the conditions and sailing for the result in our group I am sure I could have done better as at times I was going well. We also had 4 or 5 races binned and each time was in the top five of the fleet.
Next big road trip now will be to Greece for the youth and masters worlds in September.”
