Roaring thunder

The weather gods treated sailors to a fine display on the second day of the 18ft Skiff International Regatta in Garda

Day two of the 2006 18ft Skiff European International Championships at Campione on Lake Garda saw a morning of absolute dead calm with crews rigging and relaxing in the warm Italian sun. The thermal breeze kicked in like clockwork at 12.00 ready for the scheduled 1.00pm start. Race management’s intention was to hold at least three races. However, Thor, or his Italian equivalent, once again had the final say in the matter.

The first race got underway in sparkling sunshine and a steady 12 knot breeze, enough to have the skiffs flat out three wiring. Racing was very close throughout the fleet with the start and windward and leeward mark roundings all aggressively contested, resulting in numerous incidents, several of which ended in the protest room.

Once again Howie Hamlin, Mike Martin and Trent Barnabas on Pegasus Racing showed why they were two time winners of the JJ Giltinan Championships and moved into the lead by the second lap, closely followed by John Winning, Andrew Hay and Geoff Bauchop on Yandoo and British team James Mears, Matt Gill and Stuart Mears on Pica. Unfortunately by this time the piled thunder clouds which had been gathering over the mountains on either side of the lake started to make their presence felt, this time cutting off the thermal wind entirely and creating a 180 degree shift at the bottom of the course. The race officer sensibly shortened the course after the second lap and sent the fleet back to shore to wait for the storm to pass.

Pass it did and shortly after 3.30pm the fleet was released again for more racing in a slightly reduced but steady breeze. Perhaps due to the passing influence of the thunder clouds the wind had backed slightly from the usual Ora direction. As a result the typical Garda strategy of banging the cliffs was not necessarily the way to go. A number of boats noticed this and continued left after the start, including the British team of Tim Penfold, Matt Alvarado and Will Penfold on Fat Facewho rounded the first windward mark well ahead of the fleet and held their lead through to the finish, successfully holding off Pegasus Racing for four laps to take a very well deserved race win. By the time the race had finished the wind was starting to drop for the day and the race officer sent the fleet home.

Fat Face's win with a fifth in the first race of the day was enough to move them up to third on the leaderboard behind Pegasus Racing who lead overall and Fleming Clausen, Thomas Ebler and Soren Clausen on GP Covers in second place. Grant Rollerson, Raphael Grenn and Warren Sare on De Longhi had their fourth place in the second race improved to third after the disqualification of a Swiss team in the protest room giving them a strong fourth place in the overall standings. Yandoo rounds off the top five after four races with one discard applied.

Forecast for tomorrow is for more sunshine and no more thunder!

Results:

1-Pegasus Racing - Howie Hamlin, 3
2-GP Covers - Flemming Clausen, 9
3-Fat Face - Tim Penfold, 13
4-De Longhi - Grant Rollerson, 13
5-Yandoo - John Winning, 14