J24 European Championship at the Royal Western Yacht Club – Day 3

John Allen GBR4269 Cacoon

The sun was replaced by cloudy skies with a forecast suggesting that the wind would disappear in the afternoon. Race officer, David Lovegrove, confirmed the forecast to be accurate, with the wind shifting south throughout the day and dropping.

Daniel Frost, GER 5475 JJOne, had the best of the day, winning race eight and having two top five results to take the lead in the regatta, with Andy Taylor, GBR 4242 Phoenix, holding on to second, and Stefan Karsunke GER 5381 Sulberg, dropping to third with a poor result in race ten when the wind dropped as predicted causing a spread of poor results amongst the top boats, which changed standings in the top ten.

The tricky race ten provided discards for GBR 4242 Pheonix and JPN 5449 Gekko, but GER 5381 Sulberg had to carry their Twentieth place due to an OCS in race 3.

Team GEKKO from Tokyo, Japan, who are hosting the 2016 J24 World Championship in Japan  this September said,

“Plymouth is a great place to experience big fleet sailing, we’ve had a variety of conditions everyday with fast currents and shifty winds. It’s tough conditions but we have learnt a huge amount from participating in this regatta and we look forward to welcoming the J24 Fleet in September. We are very impressed by the Race Committee and the Plymouth European Organisational Team, they have held very smooth and fair races everyday, we are impressed that we’ve already had 10 races in 3 days. Plymouth is beautiful and we especially love your evening entertainment and the kindness that you have shown us”

Thank you, Plymouth and all J24 European competitors!”

With only one discard, the final day of light and shifty winds will prove challenging for all the crews. There are twenty points separating the first three, so one bad race could change the results, and consistency will be the deciding factor in tomorrow, the last day of the J24 Europeans.

John Allen