Round one

South France was the vunue for the first round of the 2006 29er Eurocup

The small town of Cavalier near Le Lavandou in the South of France was the venue for the first round of the 2006 29er Eurocup. Held over the Easter break 30 boats from Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark and Great Britain made the trip to what turned out to be a superb long weekends sailing. Racing was held just off the beach in the bay.

Day one brought an easterly breeze over the headland making for difficult decisions going into the windward mark. Paul Brotherton and Mari Shepherd showed their hand early by winning the first two races. A further two races out of the six scheduled were sailed until the wind faded away.

Day two arrived with the same wind direction if a little stronger and not so much sun. The tricky puffy conditions meant that Brotherton and Shepherd did not get it all their own way. The German team of Benni Friedhoff and Johana Munding put an impressive score line including a win as did the Danish team of Oliver Regniter and Anders Thomson. The only other boat to win a race all regatta was another German team of Jan Hauke Erichsen and Simon Gerling. Although the wind was very patchy the race team managed to get six races in leaving four to do on the final day.

The final day brought bright sunshine and a westerly breeze from the opposite headland along with the threat of very strong winds. However the wind backed to the south west and an amazing 12 – 15 knots blew in clean from the sea. Four amazing races in the sun and wind were held. Brotherton and Shepherd romped away to win every race, the only struggle they had was at the last mark of the last race when a tussle with Regnitzer and Thomsen and Hall and Hall resulted in the Danish team doing turns. The increase in wind brought a few changes to the front of the fleet, some of the teams who struggled in the light came to the front and visa versa.

A big thank you must go to the German class association who along with their coaches, the sailing school and the French 29er dealer ran the whole event.
We will be back next year.

Results:

Pos	Helm/Crew	Sailno	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	Tot
1	Brotherton, Paul, Shepherd, Mari,	GBR 1159	1	1	-5	1	1	-5	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	14
2	Friedhoff, Benjamin, Munding, Johanna,	GER 1105	2	2	-8	2	3	3	1	7	2	7	3	3	2	-13	37
3	Regnitzer, Oliver, Thomsen, Anders,	DEN 959	5	4	1	3	-9	4	-14	6	8	3	2	2	5	2	45
4	Erichsen, Jan Hauke, Gerling, Simon,	GER 989	-13	8	4	4	6	1	4	-14	10	2	4	7	7	5	62
5	White, Sophie, Fielder, Andrew,	GBR 342	-12	6	7	12	2	9	8	4	3	-13	6	5	9	3	74
6	Keller, Nathalie, Hotz, Irina,	SUI 9	9	-13	2	-17	8	8	5	2	4	12	7	13	4	6	80
7	Jepsen, Niklas, Jepsen, Maui,	GER 955	6	9	6	-21	4	2	7	11	9	6	8	(dq)	10	11	89
8	Hall, David, Hall, Laura,	GBR 777	3	12	13	7	13	11	(ocs)	-15	7	5	5	9	3	4	92
9	Beucke, Kerstin, Beucke, Susann,	GER 1072	-20	5	3	9	7	-14	2	12	14	14	12	6	11	9	104
10	Cadre, Alain, Cadre, Francois,	FRA 57	7	-18	16	6	12	6	9	(dq)	6	9	14	4	13	8	110