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

Those of us who were lucky enough to arrive early were greeted by some truly wonderful sailing conditions. Windspeed in the high teens, with gusts into the twenties and an air temperature of 30 odd degrees!!! The practice race on Sunday was characterised by a very close duel between Jerry Wales and Keith Willis, with Willis dominating upwind and Wales downwind, Willis eventually took the race, despite a capsize on the last run mainly due to the fact that Wales decided the race was too short and he would do an extra lap! Day 1 unfortunately had no wind and after a drift out and back racing was delayed to the next day, with 3 races scheduled. Race 1 Willis and Wales again had a close duel, this time however, it was for last and second to last place. At the front Kerri Harris got the Win with Demo Dave second and Ben Cooper third. Race 2 was a complete reversal with Willis and Wales again fighting for first, a Port tack RS200 failing to give way on the line causing Willis to Capsize and giving Wales the win with Willis second and Dave Smithwhite third. Race 3 again had Wales and Willis at the front along with Ben Cooper who was also showing some very good upwind speed, leading for most of the race. Race 4 again had Willis and Wales fighting for first, until a collision had Willis capsizing and having to do turns, and allowing Smithwhite through for the win with Wales second and Demo third. Race 5 saw Smithwhite winning his second race on the trot followed by Demo and then Buzz Keck. Huge overnight thunderstorms meant that the thermal breeze never kicked in and so we were left to race on a dying northerly. Eventually racing was abandoned for the day when the time limit ran out. The final day dawned with Wales leading overall followed by Smithwhite, Demo, Willis, Buzz anybody could win!! The pre race manouvres between Willis, Demo and Buzz started in the bar the night before, Demo, having lost out badly to significant quantities of vodka, hit the race course not completely sure whether it was christmas or easter. Race 6 started, Wales failed to show and Ben Cooper hurtled into a good early lead followed by Demo whose autopilot was working better than he was, with Willis lying third after some very close racing with all three swapping the lead Demo's autopilot eventually winning with Willis second cooper third, Buzz fourth, Eddie Gatehouse fifth and Smithwhites in sixth. Race 7 started with Demo again feeling picked upon after getting stung by a hornet in between races. Again, however, the autopilot shone through with Demo winning from Cooper, Buzz, Smithwhite, Alex Konkourakis and finally Willis. This left Demo and his autopilot to win the event overall. The entire event was characterised by some stunningly close racing gorgeous weather huge overnight thunderstorms and excellent social.