Europe open meeting at Chichester Yacht Club

16 Europe sailors meet at Chichester for the first open meeting of the season © Karen Cheesman

16 Europe sailors - some well-known in the fleet, others coming to their first open meeting - arrived at Chichester Yacht Club to be met with sunshine and a fresh (aka chilly) North westerly.

With an early first start of 10am, due to the tides, the first shout out goes to the two James - James Clements, coming from Portishead and James Dawes from Redditch - both with long drives to make the event - great commitment from Europe sailors.

Four short races in a trapezoid format was the order of the day, with the Europes going first followed by the Solo fleet.

Race 1 saw a packed line, a lot of hiking up the beat, a close 1st mark rounding and off down a fast reach and then downhill to the gybe mark, which caught a few sailors out with some early swims. Lucy Boreham took a momentary lead over Jason Belben on lap 2, but Jason's superior upwind speed saw him take race 1, with Lucy in second and Jeremy Hartley coming in third.

A quick turnaround and race 2 got under way, this time with James Dawes taking an early lead, to be chased down by Jason, Jeremy and Lucy with James taking fourth, great result for having only just recently stepped into the Europe.

There was much position changing, with lots of snakes and ladders to be found on the upwind with a tricky wind direction giving plenty of lifts, headers and gusts coming over the trees on the far side of Chichester lake and a wobbly downwind leg and the gybe mark close to the club shore to keep spectators amused.

Race 3 saw Jason take a port hand flyer and sneaking ahead of most of the fleet, with the tide having now turned this made the top of the beat interesting and many boats overstanding the port lay line to cause almost all of the fleet to arrive together - all safely round with a few people taking the appropriate penalty turns. By this time the order of first and second was established bewteen Jason and Jeremy whilst Adam Catlow found his form finishing third and Simon Jones taking fourth.

A slightly reduced fleet (the rumours of tea, sandwiches and home-made cake ashore was too much for some) meant that only ten boats started the final race, in what was the calmest conditions of the day - again Jason took an early lead, John Rees maintained his good start to finish second with Jeremy just edging in front of Adam on the final reach to take third and Lucy as the top female just about hanging onto fifth place (and slightly regretting telling the race officer that four races was a good idea so early in the season).

Mark Swallow was enjoying his new boat, with improving scoreline each race and a big grin when he came back ashore.

The much anticipated sailors tea was had, the prizes given out, the excellent race team, both afloat and ashore, congratulated and everyone packed up in the sunshine in good time for those with long drives to get home well before dark.

Whilst the female entry for this event was lower than usual, the class have an Women's training day at Stokes Bay SC on the 6th April - a club that has the majority of its Europe sailors being women. The training day is open to all female sailors - if you are interested in trying the Europe the Synergy Demo boat will be available on the day - please contact the class via the Facebook group to find out more.

Overall Results: