Percy into the lead

While Beadsworth receives two yellow flags at the Star Europeans, reports Andy Beadsworth

We arrived at the club today in glorious sunshine and almost no wind. However when I checked our forecast it suggested we might see 20-30 knots.I couldn't believe it.

As we sailed out in the light northwesterly breeze it slowly built. After a couple of general recalls we had 15 knots.

Under a black flag start, Percy was on the pin, we were next up and we both had cracking starts. About a minute into the race I heard a loud whistle and turned to look and saw an umpire waving a yellow flag and pointing in our general direction. NO! It can't be. I looked back again and there was little doubt that it was us they were penalising for an infringement of rule 42. Propulsion. The penalty a 720 degree turn. Two circles.

Having done our turns we got quickly back into the race, playing the left hand side. We seemed very quick and rounded the windward mark fifth or sixth - an excellent recovery, the wind building all the while and kicking up some steep waves. We have definitely made a big jump in performance downwind making gains on those ahead of us and dropping those behind.

On the second run the wind had built to 17/18 knots, and we were in fifth place in a close battle with 4th and 6th when suddenly I heard the loud whistle again. I looked round and the Jury boat was on our weather hip waving a yellow flag at us again. You have got to be kidding!!!!

This was exceptionally bad news. In a regatta when you get one yellow flag you do a 720 degree turn, then on the second you have to retire from the race and if you get a third you have to withdraw from the regatta.

So we withdrew from the race.

Having never received a yellow flag in my sailing career we got two in one race! I guess we will learn some lessons from this. We obviously must have been drawing attention to ourselves.

In the second race we came out of the middle of the line with good speed, most of the good guys to the left. It appeared that the right side looked good, but with no easy lanes out to the right we pushed on to the left our speed keeping us in front. Loof dipped us about 7 or 8 minutes into the race. We tacked a few minutes later but could not cross a boat and got bounced back left. Percy, Rohart and a few others got across. The next time we saw them near the windward mark they were 100m ahead. Unfortunately we overstood a little too, rounding in 15th.

The course had been set with reaches in the first lap then a run on the second - normal practice in the Star when its windy. We took several boat on the reaches lost and gained a few on the the next beat and run. A good final beat in 22 knots got us back to tenth.

Our speed and boat handling is good, there are a few that are in a slightly different league in those conditions: Percy, Loof, Rohart, etc but otherwise we are generally competitive. Percy and Mitchell won both races today and are setting the standard in these conditions.

Overall we have taken a big hit due to the DSQ and are down to 26th out of 70. However this should improve significantly when we get a discard after the next race. There are only two races to go with a layday tomorrow and one race a day on Thursday and Friday. We have a bit on to to make the top 10 which we thought would be a relatively easily achievable goal. However never say never! We shall take each race as it comes.

Results:

Pos	Skipper/Crew	Nat.	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot
1	Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell	GBR	5	5	1	1	12,00
2	Hans Spitzauer/Adi Luzlbauer	AUT	9	9	3	7	28,00
3	Fredrik Lööf/Anders Ekström	SWE	3	22	7	3	35,00
4	Afonso Domingos/Bernardo Santos	POR	6	1	12	17	36,00
5	Mateusz Kusznierewicz/Dominik Zycki	POL	14	12	5	6	37,00
6	Benny Andersen/Mogens Just	DEN	4	27	9	4	44,00
7	Alexander Hagen/Kay Falkenthal	GER	17	3	13	13	46,00
8	George Szabo/Christian Finnsgård	USA	24	8	8	11	51,00
9	Mats Johansson/Leif Möller	SWE	7	20	18	8	53,00
10	Mattias Miller/Frithjof Kleen	GER	16	23	6	12	57,00
11	Robert Stanjek/Markus Koy	GER	44	6	4	5	59,00
12	Xavier Rohart/Pascal Rambeau	FRA	2	43	14	2	61,00
13	Mark Mendelblatt/Mark Strube	USA	1	68/OCS	2	9	80,00
14	Maurice O' Connell/Ed Peel	IRL	33	25	10	15	83,00
15	Christian Monberg/Martin Leifelt	DEN	31	17	22	19	89,00
16	Vasyl Gureyev/Volodymyr Korotkov	UKR	15	32	24	21	92,00
17	Thomas Schiffer/Niels Heutschel	GER	18	2	31	42	93,00
18	Hubert Merkelbach/Oliver Vitzthum	GER	22	44	15	14	95,00
19	Luca Simeone/Ferdinando Colaninno	ITA	8	45	21	25	99,00
20	Ante Razmilovic/Mike Wolfs	GBR	25	38	19	20	102,00
21	Daniel Stegmeier/Bent Stegmeier	SUI	21	53	17	16	107,00
22	Eugen Ajksentiev/Mykola Shapovalov	UKR	36	4	30	38	108,00
23	Rustan Carlström/Lars Edwall	SWE	20	14	42	32	108,00
24	Christian Nehammer/Wenk Benedikt	AUT	10	29	33	39	111,00
25	Andy Beadsworth/David Carr	GBR	13	28	68/DNF	10	119,00
26	Vladimir Ikonnikov/Anatoliy Mikhailin	RUS	35	26	32	31	124,00
27	Johnny Jensen/Marten Petersen	DEN	41	39	23	22	125,00
28	Ingvar J-son Krook/Erik Gamner	SWE	30	34	27	40	131,00
29	Carl Schröder/Stefan Hemlin	SWE	59	7	48	18	132,00
30	Bo Staffan Andersson/Michael Broad	SWE	12	61	35	26	134,00
31	Martin Wigforss/Anders Ohlsson	SWE	19	46	47	24	136,00
32	Henrik Dannesboe/Ramis Fayzullin	SUI	32	15	28	68/DNF	143,00
33	Tibor Tenke/Jozsef Bendicaek	HUN	47	30	38	29	144,00
34	Marton Gereben/Peter Gereben	HUN	46	11	41	47	145,00
35	Daniel Wyss/Eric Monroe	SUI	52	33	37	23	145,00
36	Giulio Gatti/Corrado Cristaldini	ITA	11	48	20	68/DNF	147,00
37	Pierpaolo Cristofori/Menuele La Porta	ITA	37	68/DSQ	16	27	148,00
38	Chris Frijdal/Rob Eders	NED	40	36	26	46	148,00
39	Peter van Veen/Paul Goelst	NED	29	18	51	51	149,00
40	Marc Blees/Gert van der Heiden	NED	27	41	46	36	150,00
41	Lars Kiewning/Markus Mehlen	GER	23	50	11	68/BFD	152,00
42	Alexey Lavrov/Alexandr Kuleshov	RUS	39	10	55	49	153,00
43	Jan Willem Kok/Gerard van der Krogt	NED	64	37	25	30	156,00
44	Andreas Hanakamp/Clemens Holtzapfel	AUT	49	31	43	34	157,00
45	Eric Dahlén/Olle Bergqvist	SWE	38	21	56	43	158,00
46	Peter Podunavac/Davor Pregl	SLO	50	19	29	68/DNF	166,00
47	Dirk-André Sommer/Andi Noete	GER	65	24	34	45	168,00
48	Joni Leeve/Asko Salminen	FIN	42	40	45	41	168,00
49	Alexander Jorissen/Maarten Schut	NED	56	13	68/DNF	37	174,00
50	Sune Carlsson/Gunnar Färneth	SWE	54	16	59	52	181,00
51	Fredrik Ljungkvist/Daniel Alm	SWE	48	68/DNF	39	28	183,00
52	Maxim Karelskiy/Aleksander Shalagin	RUS	57	57	36	33	183,00
53	Tomas Fransén/Pontus Gäbel	SWE	43	47	57	44	191,00
54	Christian Paucksch/Peter Andru	GER	53	51	40	50	194,00
55	Hans Oskarsson/Mattias Heiding	SWE	34	35	61	68/DNF,AVG(1)	198,00
56	Krister Carlsson/Peter Ek	SWE	28	56	50	68/DNF	202,00
57	Eizens Cepurnieks/Eizens Kanskis	LAT	55	68/DNF	44	35	202,00
58	Jose F Garcia de Soto/Alvaro Elorza	ESP	45	42	53	68/DNF	208,00
59	Christian Öller/Johan Öller	FIN	26	59	62	68/DNF	215,00
60	Anders Högland/Lars Ahlstedt	SWE	51	52	64	48	215,00
61	Reiner Petersen/Oliver Berger	GER	63	58	58	53	232,00
62	Reginald Schlubach/John Schlubach	COL	58	55	52	68/DSQ	233,00
63	Erik Thorsell/Per Pousard	SWE	66	54	49	68/DNF	237,00
64	Börje Larsson/Carl-Fredrik Larsson	SWE	67	63	54	54	238,00
65	Tobias Chronéer/Charlotta Chronéer	SWE	60	62	63	55	240,00
66	Jürgen Paust/Stefan Paust	GER	62	49	68/DNF	68/DNS	247,00
67	Hubert Rauch/Ingo Schappeler	GER	61	60	60	68/BFD	249,00