RMW gives a sailing lesson

After a bumpy first day of 18ft skiff racing in Carnac

The international fleet of 18ft skiffs saw brisk conditions on their first day of racing at their championship race in Carnac yesterday.

Although the wind was regularly 15-18 knots, a lumpy sea state proved taxing in the exteme for the 24 boats that include entries from the UK, Australia, the US, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and France.

"We had good speed right out of the start," commented RMW Marine team manager Richard Woof. "We sailed out from under Howie’s [Hamlin] lee and at weather mark had a comfortable lead from John Winning, who’s going quite quickly and then Howie Hamlin who was equally spaced behind John Winning going down the first run, when most of the fleet ran into trouble."

Prior to the start at 3.20pm local time, several boats had already capsized and during the race all the fleet capsized at least once - with the exception of RMW Marine. Greenhalgh and his crew ended up lapping the only other contenders - including Hamlin, the world champion - to finish 8 minutes ahead of the second placed boat.

"The boat was going very quickly and the boys to be quite frank, gave the rest of the fleet a complete sailing lesson. We are pretty chuffed about that," commented Woof.
"Basically it was boathandling errors in really difficult conditions. It was pretty bumpy. The guys who have always been absolutely solid in big breeze were swimming."

Two injured crew were taken ashore by RIB, one French crewman suffering a knee injury. Because of the carnage, the second race of the day was cancelled.

Three races are being held today.

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Nat	Tot
1	RMW	GREENHALGH Rob	GBR	0
2	OMEGA SMEG	BARNABAS TREVOR	AUS	3
3	YANDOO	WINNING JOHN	AUS	5.7
4	TOTAL REC	HANNAN TONY	AUS	8
DNF	BASE 1	DULSON ROB	GBR	32
DNF	BLUES PT	JEHANNO RONAN	FRA	32
DNF	ELCOTEC	LAGI STEFANO	ITA	32
DNF	EXARTECH	RALSTON VERNON	GBR	32
DNF	EXEL	RUEGER STEPHAN	SUI	32
DNF	FISHER PA	ROLLERSON GRANT	AUS	32
DNF	FLAWLESS	SOLDANO PABLO	ITA	32
DNF	GENERAL E	HAMLIN HOWARD	USA	32
DNF	GROUPE SE	ORION CHRISTOPHE	FRA	32
DNF	HERMES	BROWNE ED	GBR	32
DNF	HYDE	JARDINE Mark	GBR	32
DNF	INNO SOUR	HOLSBOER BERNARD	NED	32
DNF	LER OLE	BROENDUM JESPER	DEN	32
DNF	LINK ASSO	PENFOLD TIM	GBR	32
DNF	RADII	RICHARDS ANDY	GBR	32
DNF	ROCKPORT	SCOTT ADAM	GBR	32
DNF	SP SYSTEM	DAWBER BILL	GBR	32
DNF	WEMPE	CLAUSEN FLEMMING	DEN	32
DNC	C	MARTIN IAN/BARDEN AARON	GBR	32
DNS	COMPUTA	BENNETT JON	GBR	32
DNS	TYRROL WI	WILKIE MARTIN	GBR	32