Local sailors come good

Tim and Chris Gibbs win third race at Sharpie Europeans

Race three of the European Sharpie Championship was sailed in a south westerly force 3 – 4 in perfect conditions for the start of the race.

At the end of the first beat the early lead was GER 377 Klaus Eisenblatter and Peter Hauschildt closely followed by GBR 134 Brian Lambert and Tim Adams. The leading boats remained tightly bunched for most of the race with much place changing especially the windward legs.

The crew were faced with the choice of going inshore out of the tide or placing for the wind shifts up the beats.

Both the early leaders got this equally wrong at times allowing first two Dutch boasts thorough NED 14 Daan Versteeg and Marcel Ver Laan and NED 119 Tom Weller and Jeroen Van Veen. .

However in the final analysis local sailors GBR 125 Tim and Chris Gibbs combined good boat speed and tactical decisions to pull through to first on the penultimate beat and subsequently to hang on to the lead through a very competitive final lap.

This result leaves the Championship very open with NED 14 in a very strong position but at least 6 other boasts close behind all still capable of winning the Championship.

Brian Lambert
GBR 134

1st GBR 125 WINDSPEIL Chris Gibbs and Tim Gibbs

2nd NED 14 JAN VAN GALEN Daan Versteeg and Marcel Ver Laan

3rd NED 119 DOORDRIJVER Tom Weller and Jeroen Van Veen