Europeans Overall

14 September 2013

It was another light day for the final fay of the 2013 European Championships in Portoroz Slovenia.

The day started under the now familiar AP flag and as in previous days a light breeze filled in mid afternoon.

Racing got under way after three general recalls.

The configuration of the fleet was quite different to the first two races ensuring some shuffling on the leader board.

Robert Gullan and Ben Ainsworth improved on yesterdays third by winning  the race bringing them up to seventh overall.

Dave Wade and Tim Hartley continued their consistency with a second, guaranteeing them second overall.

Matt Burge and Richard Wagstaff managed a ninth which was enough to hold on for the overall victory.

The light conditions again allowed only one race to be sailed.

Matt Burge and Richard Wagstaff said after the event, "It was very difficult racing, extremely tricky. Although there were only three races, that was probably one of the hardest events we've done, because it was so easy to sail a bad result in all three races. There was no consistency, you just had to always get in pressure and the shifts, wherever that was. And yes, we're really pleased. Naturally we wouldn't be fully happy until hopefully we win the Worlds next week, but this is surely a good start. We think this is probably one of the most competitive events in many years in the Fireball, there are a number of people that have won the championships in the past, who all seem to be here, so yes - to win here is perhaps extra special, so I just pray that we can try to do that again. But we've done it this week, so there's no reason we can't do it next week, we'll just push it on and try to do it again. Thanks to everybody, the event has been perfectly organized, GoSailing is great, you definitely get the sense that it's been done properly."

Dave Wade and Tim Hartley: "The championship has been very very good so far, very light, very shifty. We tried to stay consistent, play the middle, sometimes it worked, sometimes it hasn't. We're happy with a result. For the Worlds, let's hope we'll have a few more races, not quite as light, but it's been fine so far, no complaints."

Matt Rainback and Simon Foskett: "We had quite a few boats very close to us before today's race, within one or two points, so we knew we had to push a little bit more. We had a good start and from then on we were just protecting third and keeping up with the two guys in front of us and hopefully, since we came third overall now, is looking good to come top five in the Worlds next week and that's our goal."

Eva Peternelj and Valentina Baruca: "We usually sail on a 470, but decided to participate in this championship because they're held here in Portorož, and provide a great opportunity to sail in bigger fleet with strong competitors. We're happy with a result, although it could be better. We did make some mistakes we shouldn't have done, so we're really looking forward to the worlds, hoping for light wind again and hopefully we'll sail better then."

Four times World Champions Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend: "We're not too happy with our result. We're surprised how light the wind has been, we only trapezed in one race. In the beginning of the week we had terrible thunderstorms and after the thunderstorms the wind has never had time to settle down. I have a lot of sympathy for the race officer, he did well to get three races in for us, but this was supposed to be a nine race series, so he's really struggled. It's been extremely light and hasn't been a good preparation for the worlds, because we haven't seen the true conditions across the course area, but it's been good fun, a lot of practice with so many recalled starts. But we're still hoping for the next week to be a little bit windier with hopefully a little bit more steady conditions. We think we're going ok, fast enough, we're not strategically sailing so well at the moment, but we'll work on this for the next week."