Results / RS Fat Face Eurocup, Italy AVAL-CDV - 21/07/2003

115 RSs from five classes made their now annual Italian job trip to the Italian Lakes for a fun packed week of high entertainment full of sun, amazing scenery, very friendly host club, huge thunderstorms, huge rum and cokes, hailstones that hurt, scandal, immense sun tans, pizza, songs, Doris missing a race because she was shopping and annoyed Italians in Y- fronts. Having survived the traffic jams up to St Gothard tunnels the RS200 competitors arrived in the small town of Gravedona on the northern shore of Lake Como to find idyllic conditions, 32 degrees and a 16-18 knot breeze. They also soon found Bar Centrale and their standard triple size rums; had we arrived in heaven. A feeling reinforced when the practice race was held in the same perfect conditions and the most entertaining event briefing ever by John "Mr Diplomacy" Callaghan. Of course this had to change and for the first points races on Monday the thermal wind did not appear. The 34 boat 200 fleet joined all other fleets for an hours bob around before we were towed ashore to wait. Then something big and black rolled down from the mountain, huge squalls hit the lake and suddenly we were in a major thunderstorm. As the roads turned to rivers there was only one place to shelter, yes Bar Centrale!! It was a loud night as the owners of the Bar started booking their new car. Tuesday and the thermal wind appeared, although not at full strength. Race 1 and the fleet soon learnt a major lesson, go left young man. Karen Baker/Jaemi Gebhard and Pete Vincent/Louisa Fewtrell recovered from bad starts to lead by going hard left. Geoff Carveth/Sarah Allen though went closer to the cliff on the run to win from Harry/Prue Roome and Lee Sydenham/Anne Vaudrey. Race 2 provided real entertainment. Carveth/Allen led all race from Craig Burlton/Pippa Williams and set off on the last long reach from the outer loop to the finish. In third David Giles/Fiona Clark convinced themselves that they had not done three laps, took the kite down and went up the beat again. So convinced they were going to win overall they got their lap of honour in early and finished last. Having taken an immense amount of leg pulling Giles/Clark started at the pin end, belted the left hand corner really hard and won by a margin to have the consistent score of 16.34.1. Burlton and Carveth recorded 2.3 to be the early clear leaders. Wednesday and again a reasonable thermal wind. A very busy start line for race 4 and it was easier to say who was the right side of the line, a point the PRO agreed with when he disqualified 12 boats including a large percentage of the top ten. Giles win was to no avail and Ian Pickard/Lucy Matthews were very happy to be promoted from fourth to race winners. Surprisingly no one was over in race 5 and again it was paying left with Sydenham/Vaudrey controlling the race with Giles second amazingly not OCS and able to count. Carveth's third meant he was moving into a strong overall position. Ashore and the host club laid on an excellent meal followed by a band that were so bad they were brilliant as the RS's really enjoyed themselves. By now the Bar Centrale owners had booked their winter cruise, the volume had been turned down a few notches much to the appreciation of the locals. But then arrived another huge storm featuring hailstorms that punctured holes through windsurfing sails, rain that literally washed sailors out of their tents and rumbling thunder that even drowned out the party in the Racing Snake camper van, home for drowned damsels in distress. Very damp sailors gathered Thursday morning to find the wind in the opposite direction from the north, quite strong but all over the place. Eventually the race team was happy they could set a fair course so out went all the fleets into a rapidly dying wind. The course was massive and after a 25 minute opening beat it still paid to go hard left even though the wind was in the opposite direction; Una Hodgkins/Max Stephenson had their moment of glory just leading from Burlton. The wind became very light but Andy Robertson/Emily Howarth sailed a great run to lead. With such a huge course and fading wind time was going to be an issue; when the PRO missed his chance to shorten course leader Carveth could not complete the final lap in time and the race was abandoned much to the relief of many. Friday and the proper thermal returned and the final two races featured the best wind of the week. Hamish Walker/Caroline Eyre flew off the start to win from the Roomes, Burlton and Carveth. There was a nervous wait for Walker/Eyre though as several boats were OCS and they knew they were close; they were safe when the board went up unlike several other leading boats. The final race saw a good close tussle in the top six with Carveth winning from Giles and Burlton. This reinforced Carveth overall advantage to give him victory by 9 points. It was a great week, the club at Gravedona were superb host and there were so many stories my head is still spinning. Roll on the Nationals.