All to play for

Two boats share the lead going into the last day of the B14 European Championship in Whitstable

The day started with a building Easterly sea breeze at the B14 European Championship at Whitstable.

Race three got off at the first attempt in a building force three and glorious sunshine. On the first beat the fleet split to either side of the course with 754 (Mike Bees and Martin Worth) leading in from the left. 754 led round the windward mark followed AT&T (Tim Fells and Shaun Barber) and 763 (Don Forster and Kate Forster.) On the run the two movers were Readycrest (Mark Barnes and Karen Wiseman) and CSC (Chris Bines and Dave Gibbons.) CSC hit hard left to come out first at the leaward mark followed by Readycrest who had gone right. During the race these two stayed in close contention with CSC taking the win from Readycrest followed by PICA (Mark Watts and Tim Rogers.)

Race four and the breeze had built to a force three to four. With the fleet pushing the line severeal boats had to return. The big movers on the beat were Rogate (Wayne Dixon and Trish Dixon) on the right and PICA, AT&T and Readycrest from the left. On the run PICA broke away followed by a close pack led by AT&T, 763 and Rogate. At the leaward mark PICA led from AT&T followed by Readycrest. Throughout the race PICA held a steady lead with AT&T jousting with Readycrest and 764 (Nils Jolliffe and Jon Branch.) On the run into the finish after three laps, PICA won but Readycrest nailed AT&T at the finish to take second by a bowspit.

Race five and the ebb tide was in full ebb. With the fleet keen for the committee boat end at the start, there was some piling up just before the gun with AT&T being the big casualty, firmly parked alongside the committee boat as the gun went resulting in his retirement.

Off the line it was CSC and 764 leading out to the left and Rogate out to the right. At the windward mark it was CSC from Gutted Hedgehog (Matt Searle and Rich Bell) and PICA. CSC hoisted the kite and maintained the biggest lead of the day building up to 150m by the finish from Gutted Hedgehog who narrowly beat PICA followed by Readycrest who were overlapped at the finish.

After two days of close racing CSC and Gutted Hedgehog are tied for first with all to play for on the last day.

With a bit of luck the champagne racing shall carry on for another day, with more tight racing expected.

Results:

Pos	Helm	Crew	Boat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Tot
1	Chris Bines	David Gibbons	CSC	3	2	1	-4	1	7
2	Matt Searle	Rich Bell	Gutted Hedgehog	1	1	3	-7	2	7
3	Mark Barnes	Karen Wiseman	Readycrest	-7	4	2	2	4	12
4	Mark Watts	Tim Rogers	PICA	4	5	5	1	3	13
5	Nils Jolliffe	Jon Branch		2	3	4	-6	5	14