Louis Morris reports – “After a frustrating 3 days where thunderstorms and lack of wind allowed only two races, Friday delivered 8-10 knots of northerly breeze already in the morning. After a bit of waiting for the course to be laid in the shifty wind, racing got underway. The conditions were incredibly tricky, the gusty and shifty offshore wind and a turning tide meant that no race was the same, leaving some difficult tactical choices. Louis Morris used safe upwind tactics, and managing to pump onto the plane and find the gusts downwind to finish 3rd in the first two races of the day, but got punished by committing to the wrong side of the course in the third race. Lewis Barnes enjoyed the shifty conditions to post two top 10 results and put the pressure on Mark Kay for the heavyweight podium, but Mark was more consistent and there was only a point between them at the end of the day. Rob Kent came away a little frustrated, as he struggled to turn his good speed into decent results after a few bad starts and getting the wrong side of the tide, shifts, and gusts.
Howell has only been on a raceboard 6 months, but sailed brilliantly in the tricky conditions, finishing 2^nd in one of the races, and finishing the day in 4^th overall. Annette Kent was one of the many sailors scratching their head with the constantly changing wind and tide making it very hard to get consistent results, but finished the day with a 2^nd place of her own.

The morning of the final day was spent waiting for wind once again, but by the early afternoon, a light sea-breeze had arrived. The wind was still pretty patchy and shifty, and the tide was beginning to push up the course. The course was a little shorter than the previous days and set very close to the shore. This lead to some interesting upwind tactics: the stronger tide on the right hand tide could help upwind, but there was also a bit of a wind bend on the left. The fleets were closely packed, but the patchy wind mixed things up downwind as some racers found themselves caught in now wind whilst others were able to plane. Lewis Barnes had a great race, finishing 7^th, which put him in a strong position for 3^rd heavyweight.

By the start of the second mens race, the wind had filled into a nice 12 knots. With a very strong port bias to the line, it was far from a clean start though. Louis was one of the few to get away cleanly, but was taken by surprise as the tide was pushing up the course, leading many of the fleet to over-stand the windward mark. By the time the windward leg was over, the wind had built to 18 knots, and many of the sailors were having a hard time controlling their light-wind sails. Downwind was especially difficult, as the tide and proximity to the shore meant that you either had to pump to a very broad angle in order to make it in one gybe, or settle for several gybes. Mark Kay opted for the second method, and with tidy gybes and superb upwind speed, he had two solid results to end the regatta, with a 7^th and a 4^th. This let him just snatch the 3^rd heavyweight prize from Lewis by 1 point. Louis really needed to finish in the top two in each race to stand a chance at the podium, but in each race, was just behind the top 4, letting them consolidate their lead.

Annette Kent really enjoyed the stronger wind conditions, and added a 2^nd and 3^rd to her score to chip away at the podium. Unfortunately for her, the race committee decided not to run a third race (possibly because several of the womens fleet were struggling in the stronger wind), and she was left hanging just 3 points from the podium in 4^th place. Molly prefers light winds, but did enough to keep 5^th overall and 1^st youth, even ahead of last year’s world champion Ilona Grinberga. The UK completed the youth girls podium with Alysia Gibson, competing in her first raceboard event above regional level, and Rebecca Kent, just two points ahead of her sister Emily.

Despite the wind not playing ball all of the time, the race officer managed a 9 race series. The level of the fleet was really high this year, and it wasn’t easy to get consistently high results. Two people who did make it look easy were Nicolas Huget and Jeanne Mailhos who won the championship by a sizable margin. The conditions were really tactically testing, and made for some pretty exciting racing. The Raceboard UK team would like to thank the UKWA for subsidising our coach boat and offering grants for 4 youth sailors to attend, as well as all of the event organisers and committee. In a couple of weeks it’s back to the UK events, with the RYA/UKWA National Windsurfing Championships at Rutland water.”

Full results, gallery, videos can be found at the event website: http://europeans2016.raceboard.org/

Results summary

Men

1^st Nicolas Huget (FRA), 1^st lightweight, 1^st master, Starboard Phantom 377/Aerolite

2^nd Toni Colomar Torres (ESP), 1^st heavyweight, 2^nd master, Starboard Phantom 380/Aerolite

3^rd Christophe Boutet (FRA), 2^nd lightweight, 3^rd master, Exocet RS 380/Coach

5^th Louis Morris (GBR), Starboard Phantom 377/Tushingham

8^th Mark Kay (GBR), 3^rd heavyweight/2^nd european heavyweight, Starboard Phantom 377L/Demon

9^th Lewis Barnes (GBR), 3^rd European heavyweight, Starboard Phantom 377L/Demon

13^th Robert Kent (GBR), 3^rd Grandmaster, Starboard Phantom 377L/Tushingham

15^th Tom Naylor (GBR), 1^st Veteran, Starboard Phantom 380/Aerolite

29^th Julian Tait (GBR), 2^nd youth, Starboard Phantom 377/Tushingham

31^st Chris Gibson (GBR), Starboard Phantom 377L/Demon

32^nd John Pete (GBR), Starboard Phantom 377L/Demon

38^th Tom Sambrook (GBR), 4^th youth, Starboard Phantom 380/Tushingham

39^th Galahad Wisbey (GBR), 5^th youth, Starboard Phantom 377L/Demon

43^rd Thomas Cave (GBR), 7^th youth, Starboard Phantom 377/RSX

49^th Toby Cave (GBR), 10^th youth, Starboard Phantom 380/RSX

Women

1^st Jeanne Mailhos (FRA), 1^st master, Exocet RS 380/Lefebvre

2^nd Farah Hall (USA), 2^nd master, F2 lightning/RSX

3^rd Maria Anto Dominguez (ESP), 1^st veteran, Starboard Phantom 377/Aerolite

4^th Annette Kent (GBR), 1^st grandmaster, Starboard Phantom 377/Tushingham

5^th Molly Howell (GBR), 1^st youth, Starboard Phantom 377/Demon

7^th Alysia Gibson (GBR), 2^nd youth, Starboard Phantom 377/Tushingham

8^th Rebecca Kent (GBR), 3^rd youth, Starboard Phantom 377/Tushingham

9^th Emily Kent (GBR), 4^th youth, Starboard Phantom 377/Tushingham

11^th Alice Butts (GBR), 5^th youth, Starboard Phantom 377/Tushingham

Open Division 2

1^st Alain Cadre (FRA)

2^nd Nicolas Le Gal (FRA)

3^rd Omar Juan Moreno (ESP)

11^th Florent Lambert (GBR)