Europeans 2007 Loa Alcazarez

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=140 BGCOLOR="#00FFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="387008c0egertu.jpg"> <div> <I><B>   </B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>|   </B></I><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="news"><U><I><B>home</B></I></U></A><I><B> </B></I><I><B>   </B></I>                                                         <B> </B><A HREF="http://pub3.ezboard.com/baclasscatamaranforum" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://pub3.ezboard.com/baclasscatamaran"><U><B>forum</B></U></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=340 BGCOLOR="#CCFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <I>European Championship 2007</I></div> <div> <I>Los Alcazarez, Murcia ,Spain</I></div> <div> <I>9-16 th June 2007 </I></div> <bR> <div> <I><IMG SRC="3aa12fa0.png" border=0 width="274" height="250" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Report By Pieterjan Ned 28</I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>How great would be A class sailing without Glenn....</B></I></div> <bR> <div> The Spanish a class association organised an terrific event on Mar Menor , In the Murcia region , South of Spain .</div> <div> It sure was worth the 2300 km drive. And iam pretty sure it was also worth the 3000 km drive for Thomas Paasch from Denmark </div> <div> and the 20.000 km flight from Murray and Ken from NZ...</div> <bR> <div> Mar Menor is an sort of inshore lake of  20 x 10 kms  covered by the La Manga  coast line .</div> <div> Its connected to the open sea on just a few spots  and its really salty... But the best thing is : the wind ...</div> <div> The promised already 12-14 knts each day last year when t5hey proposed this location , and they were right.</div> <div> Without any doubt one of the best locations for a big championship of the last 10 years.</div> <div> Due to the high temperatures inland,  a sea breeze picked up in the afternoon, at least 8knts, but up to an occasional 18 knts in the last races.</div> <div> Surprising and interesting was the fact that the sea breeze was far from predictable each day. The direction was swinging , </div> <div> The strength not always that consistent ( at least not were I was floating around...)  .</div> <div> The short steep chop was typical . Not flat at all, not really bumpy as the Ostsee in Westervik last year.</div> <div> So it really was an interesting racing area.</div> <bR> <div> <B>How did the racing go ?</B></div> <bR> <div> Great racing, with most of the regular guys in the front.</div> <div> Glenny doing business as usual, sailing his Geltek Flyer mk 2 as slippery as can be . </div> <div> Fantastic performance again.</div> <div> Only Stevie Brewin, the other 'natural sailor' in my opinion, stole the 4th race from him .</div> <div> 7 wins out of  8 races  shows clearly no one is even coming near again this year.</div> <div> The details of  all the races can be read on Glenn's website : <A HREF="http://www.ashbysails.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ashbysails.com"><U>www.ashbysails.com</U></A>, </div> <div> were Mel is doing a great job letting know everyone who how's holiday.... ;-)</div> <bR> <div> Scott  Anderson finished a remarkable  2nd again, for the zillionth time, with  fantastic consistent results .</div> <div> Despite of the unconviences of getting a little older, the old fox still knows how it is done .</div> <div> Not always getting best at the first mark, but always getting back to the front, mainly by very good downwind</div> <div> performance and tactics.</div> <div> Manolo Calavia, not only managed to get the championship to the CAR ' high performance centre "infanata Christina" ( well done) , but also </div> <div> sailed really well finishing third onbly a few points from Scott, just like last years' Worlds in Sweden .</div> <div> Manolo performs one of the best boathandling in the fleet, and he is never slow.</div> <div> Stevie Brewin was sailing the Wayne Mercer designed 'Tool'  with the Saarberg mast and  off course an own build sail, </div> <div> were the other three in front all used the Flyer MK2 , Fiberfoam Medium and Ashby Big head sails.</div> <div> Stevie was also pretty consistent, despite an OCS in race 5. . His speed was not always as good as  he wished, but anyway</div> <div> he had great moments of performance.</div> <div> In Fifth Place -runner up for the future for sure-  Sjoerd Hoekstra (NED) was finishing , also on the Tool with Saarberg mast,with an Ashby Bighead.</div> <div> Starts could be better, Sjoerd always fought back to really decent results. Not the fastest guy on the water, but one of the smartest for sure....</div> <div> David Brewer ended up 6th, growing in the championship, and performing better in the bigger breezes. </div> <div> Italians Egenio Calabria and Paolo Penco finished just 1 point seperating them on 7 & 8 th. Calabria sailing the Flyer mk2 and Paolo the first Bimare XJ.</div> <div> Both using FiberFoam masts with Ullman sails .</div> <div> 9 and 10 th  surprisingly  the two Spainish Locals,  Enrique Cornejo Serranno and terrific sailing  good old Mariano Martinez Pina </div> <div> were finishing on the MK 2 and Mk 1 Flyers. Very well done !</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3ac4cdd0.jpg" border=0 width="332" height="221" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> </div> <div> <I><B>first 10 on the podium </B></I>:left to right :Dave Brewer,Steve Brewin,Scott Anderson,Sjoerd Hoekstra,</div> <div> Egenio Clabria , Glenn Ashby,Paolo Penco,Manolo Calavia,Enrique Cornejo Serranno and  Mariano Martinez Pina </div> <bR> <bR> <div> Other remarkable facts were:</div> <div> Murray Phillpott (NZ) managed  to reach the Topmark 4 or 5 times first... and also managed to break rudder, daggerboard, trampoline,hull  and many more etc.</div> <div> Not really his week ;-)</div> <div> Arno Terra ( NED) managed a 3rd place in the 3rd race on his XJ , succesfully defending his 2nd at the topmark at the lightest wind race of the regatta...</div> <div> Thilo Keller  (GER, 23rd) won the youth ( under 25) prize</div> <div> Mariano Martinez Pina (ESP , 10th) the Grand master prize </div> <div> and Piet Saarberg  (NED,30th) the Great Grandmaster prize</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3aefca80.jpg" border=0 width="252" height="168" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="3b1fca80.jpg" border=0 width="252" height="168" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="3b3fea90.jpg" border=0 width="254" height="169" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Windy enough during most of the races ..</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="3b500ab0.jpg" border=0 width="256" height="171" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="3b7e3aa0.jpg" border=0 width="227" height="170" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="3b9ffaa0.jpg" border=0 width="255" height="170" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> great sailing center on shore : CAR ' high performance centre "infanata Christina"</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>