Greenhalgh/Johnson on form

Andy Rice reports on the International 14 Europeans in Brunnen, Switzerland

Rob Greenhalgh and Dan Johnson haven’t sailed all year in the International 14, but the reigning World Champions picked up where they left off by winning the European Championships in Switzerland in fine style. Sailing one of the new Morrison 12 hulls built by RMW Marine, the team overcame the flukiest and most variable of breezes on the Urnersee to win with a set of three first and three second places, with a discard of third. Behind them was a much closer battle for second, with Chips Howarth and Tim Hancock prevailing over defending European Champion James Fawcett and Dave Debrojewic by just a point.

Greenhalgh has been busy carving out a career in professional big boat racing this year, while Johnson has been working the beat as a policeman in Richmond, Surrey. The last time they sailed together was when winning the JJ Giltinan Trophy, the unofficial 18-foot skiff world championship. Having not attended a 14 event all season, Greenhalgh admits he was a little apprehensive about competing in Switzerland. “We came because it was the biggest event of the year. But we’d not done any sailing this year, so we were nervous of going. We thought we might not be on the pace, but we had good height and our VMG was very good.”

The top three places were filled by three different hull designs, the Morrison 12, Bieker 4 and the Bieker 5 respectively. But Greenhalgh believes there is really very little to choose between the performance of these hulls. “We won the Worlds last year in a Morrison 11, so there’s obviously nothing wrong with that shape either. What is much more significant is the incredible array of T-foil rudders that you see when you walk around the boat park. I think there’s a lot more work to come from there, and the masts and sails, than from any hull developments.”

And on the Urnersee, an offshoot of Lake Lucerne and a sort of mini-Lake Garda situated at 400m above sea level, the vagaries of the wind were a far greater factor than any slight boat speed differences. There are three main types of wind system, the prevailing westerly breeze, a thermal Garda-style wind from the north and an evil wind known as the Föhn, which can hit speeds of up to 120kmh. Class chairman Victor Brellisford said: “The Föhn wind was bizarre. There is a system of flashing lights around the lake to warn you of its arrival. On day one of the event, the lights started flashing after the second race and the race officer sent us ashore urgently. The thermal breeze from the north stopped dead and none of the overseas visitors could quite believe it when 30 minutes later it started blowing 35-40 knots from the south, literally blowing boats over in the boat park.” The boat park was at a corner of the lake and the westerly and the Föhn met at this corner leading to dramatic mixing of the winds and water spouts being thrown up.

Vertical gusts were another novel feature of the racing, and the combination of massive shift combined with outrageous gust took many sailors by surprise. Fawcett was twice capsized and dislodged from the head of the fleet, so it was happening to the best of them. The Brits dominated the racing, but German team Oliver Voss and Jens Holscher broke the GBR stranglehold on the top 10, coming 9th overall.

The wacky racing didn’t stop there. Local sailor Roger Fischer organised a competition that involved teams being supplied with a sheet of 8x4 plywood and a tube of Sikkaflex. From this the teams were expected to build a boat, place two people on board, and race it out to a buoy and back to the shore. Many boats failed to make the distance, but it was reassuring to see that the ones which showed the most promise were constructed by rival boatbuilders Dave Ovington and Richard Woof. Rumours abounded that Woofy had secretly acquired an extra tube of Sikkaflex, but a steward’s enquiry could neither confirm nor deny the truth of the accusation.

Thanks go to the organisers, the Regattavereinigung Brunnen and the Swiss International 14 Class Association, along with beer sponsor, Baarer Bier, and Victorinox, manufacturers of the Swiss Army pen knife.

The next major regatta on the International 14 calendar is the World Championship, due to be held in Auckland this February.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Nat	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	R 5	R 6	R 7	Tot
1	Robert Greenhalgh	Dan Johnson	GBR	1	-3	2	2	1	1	2	9
2	Ian Howarth	Tim Hancock	GBR	4	1	4	1	3	-10	9	22
3	James Fawcett	Dave Dobrojenic	GBR	3	5	1	3	2	9	-10	23
4	Jarrod Simpson	Harvey Hillary	GBR	5	-14	3	11	5	2	7	33
5	Geoff Carveth	Adrian Murphy	GBR	2	6	9	-12	4	6	12	39
6	Tony Dencher	Andy Hetherington	GBR	17	2	11	7	7	3	(DNF)	47
7	Archie Massey	George Nurton	GBR	11	10	-27	10	11	5	6	53
8	Matt Larkin	Geoff Larkin	GBR	8	-26	19	5	6	16	1	55
9	Oliver Voss	Jens Holscher	GER	9	12	8	4	12	-15	11	56
10	Julian Pearson	Louise Hickey	GBR	16	7	-20	6	16	13	3	61
11	Victor Brellisford	Damian Ash	GBR	6	9	10	16	-17	17	5	63
12	Stephan Heim	Robert Schmidt	GER	13	13	12	-22	10	8	16	72
13	Jeremy Sibthorp	Jason Merron	GBR	20	8	15	18	8	(DNF)	4	73
14	Andres Gasser	Philipp Känzig	SUI	12	15	6	-27	15	12	15	75
15	Roddy Bridge	Toby Lewis	GBR	21	11	5	14	13	-29	17	81
16	Andrew Penman	Tim Bastow	GBR	19	-20	16	9	18	11	8	81
17	Stefan Ritsche	Dominik Entzminger	GER	7	25	-30	8	14	18	18	90
18	John Hele	Stuart Saffer	USA	15	21	25	-29	9	7	14	91
19	Charlie Duchesne	Will Broom	GBR	18	4	17	26	25	4	-27	94
20	Pit Müller	Böbbi Schiess	SUI	26	19	7	19	20	22	(DNC)	113
21	Katie Nurton	Nigel Ash	GBR	-34	22	13	21	19	20	23	118
22	Robin Pascal	Martin Pascal	GBR	25	18	23	28	21	14	-29	129
23	Dave Spragg	Andy Loukes	GBR	27	24	14	20	23	23	(DNC)	131
24	Rollo Pyper	Nick Martin-Mc Crew	GBR	10	-32	26	24	22	24	28	134
25	Doug Walker	Daniel Staib	GBR	24	31	18	13	(DNF)	19	33	138
26	Claudio Fackelmann	Moritz Klein	GER	31	-34	21	15	24	28	19	138
27	Kimball Morrison	Patrick Ruf	GBR	29	17	(DNF)	25	26	27	26	150
28	Roger Douglas	Jeremy Reed	GBR	23	30	22	23	27	(DNF)	25	150
29	Dave Ovington	Adam Ovington	GBR	22	27	24	30	28	(RAF)	22	153
30	Marc Ryan	Scott Anderson	GBR	-35	29	28	32	31	26	24	170
31	Patrick Ide	Joschi Müller	SUI	14	28	29	(DNF)	DNC	DNC	13	174
32	Caroline Billing	Claude Fischer	SUI	33	23	33	31	(DNF)	21	37	178
33	Michael Kienzler	Christian Stock	GER	28	16	32	17	(DNF)	DNC	DNC	183
34	Hannes Weininger	Stefan Hövel	GER	(DNC)	DNC	31	33	29	30	21	189
35	Philip McDanell	Caroline Gosford	GBR	32	35	34	35	30	25	(DNC)	191
36	Markus Ostermair	Christopher Kopp	GER	30	33	35	36	(DNF)	DNC	20	199
37	Andreas Sailer	Michael Meier	GER	36	(DNF)	36	34	32	DNF	34	217
38	Dominic van Essen	Simona Saccani	SUI	37	(DNF)	37	DNC	DNC	DNC	32	241
39	Karsten Heinzle	Martina Müller	AUT	(DNF)	DNF	DNF	37	DNF	DNC	35	252
40	Helmut Jordan	Fiona Jordan	GER	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	30	255
41	Juergen Buetow	Sabine Buetow	GER	(DNF)	DNF	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	31	256
42	Daniel Müller	Adrian Woerz	GBR	(DNF)	DNF	DNF	38	DNF	DNC	38	256
43	Xavier Boileau	Ludovic Gilet	FRA	(DNF)	DNF	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	36	261
44	Peter Dan	Dominic Stanislaus	GBR	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	270