Fireball French Nationals and European Championships Day 3
at SRR La Rochelle
Warm and sunny again with a slightly delayed start at around 3pm.
Race 5
The lighter shifty conditions made for tricky racing. Race 5 started in 6-7 knots of breeze. Bart Meyendonckx and Francu De Roeck from Belgium lead at the windward mark. Behind Tom Gillard and Francis Rowan battled hard with Vince Horey and Rob Gardner and it was these two who pulled through to take 1st and 2nd. Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend had an excellent last beat to take 3rd on the line from Petr Koran and Milan Kvasnik. The Belgian team held on for 6th.
Race 6
Conditions started similar to race five but with the wind dropping as the race went on. Kevin Hope and Russell Thorne lead all the way from start to finish to pull themselves up the leaderboard. Matt Findlay and Richard Anderton had their best race yet of the championship passing Eva Skorepova and Victor Tkadlec (3rd) and Ludovic Alleaume and Etienne Perdon (4th) to take 2nd. Horey & Gardner took 5th to lead overnight.
Overall after 6 races (8 races scheduled). Final day tomorrow
1st Vince Horey & Rob Gardner GBR
2nd Tom Gillard & Francis Rowan GBR/IRL
3rd Martin Kubovy & Martin Cap CZE
4th Becky Priest & Tim Saunders GBR
5th Martyn Lewis & Richard Bailey GBR
6th Jaroslav Verner & Pavel Winkler CZE
7th Petr Koran & Milan Kvasnik CZE
8th Kevin Hope & Russell Thorne GBR
9th Matt Findlay & Richard Anderton GBR
10th Tim Rush & Sam Breary GBR
