Greenhalgh update

Fresh from Puma, the British 18ft skiff is holding second position at the Mark Foy Trophy going into today's layday

Sunday 28 June marked the start of what promised to be a thrilling 18ft Skiff regatta here in Carnac. Robert Greenhalgh arrived in town at 5am on Sunday morning straight in from the finish of the Volvo race in St Petersburg and stepped aboard his skiff with his two crewmen, Dan Johnson and Phil Harmer (also just off Green Dragon from Volvo Ocean Race). Luckily for them racing was cancelled on Sunday due to lack of wind so they had the chance to test out the boat (and themselves!) with their shore support expert close at hand, Richard (Woofy) Woof.

There are 29 boats entered with a good assortment of nationalities: nine British boats, six Australians, three each from New Zealand and Germany, two each from France, Hungary and Switzerland and one each from USA and Denmark - truly a world class line up with plenty of famous names in there - John Winning, Trevor Barnabas, Howie Hamlin, to name but a few!!

Robert imported his boat from Australia back in 2006, it was manufactured by Van Munster Boats, but due to sailing commitments with TeamOrigin and Puma Volvo racing, he only managed to race the skiff for three days in the UK in summer of 2008 for the UK Nationals (which he managed to win!). The boat is named Benny after an Australian gentleman, who passed away a few years back and was one of the original 18ft skiff ‘owners’ and sponsors. Benny ‘adopted’ Robert and his pommie team over many years of sailing at the JJ Giltinan Trophy in Sydney - and both won and lost lots of money betting on their performances too!

Monday’s forecast was a bit more promising than Sunday with sea breeze looking like it might make an appearance and sure enough two races were completed in conditions than varied from 5to 10 knots. Robert, Dan and Phil managed a very impressive 4th and 1st place to take the top spot on the leaderboard. Also up there after the first day of racing was Archie Massey, Howie Hamlin, Trevor Barnabas, John Winning jnr.

Yesterday, Tuesday, saw the sailors hang around onshore until 3pm when a trickle of breeze made an appearance and after plenty of hours of ‘talking up’ rigs and settings in true skiff sailor style, the racing got underway in a building breeze and two races were completed.

Results top 7 places after 4 races, (1 discard counted)

Grant Rollerson : 3 pts : 1,1,1, (OCS)
Robert Greenhalgh : 7 pts : 4,1,2, (7)
Archie Massey : 8 pts :3,3,2,(6)
Howie Hamlin : 13 pts :5,2,6,(9)
Trevor Barnabas : 15 pts :4,6,5,(8)
Jarrod Simpson : 17 pts :8,5,4,(16)
John Winning Jnr : 21 pts : 2,7,12

Full results after day 2...

Robert commented after Tuesday’s racing, “The Volvo Ocean Race already feels like a million miles away. Sailing here in Carnac back in the 18 is awesome. The standard of the fleet is very high and everyone is going fast. Although we have had little practise we are very happy with our performance so far and hope to make small gains as the week goes on.”

Today, Wednesday, is the scheduled lay day. Racing starts up again on Thursday and runs through to Saturday.