International 14 European Championship 2025 at Segelclub-Eckernförde - Day 3

Ah, it is good to be back at a European event enjoying the European lifestyle. Having had a tantrum in Race 1 and spat out my tack pole dummy, I was going into day 3 having only completed 1 of 3 races.

It was a beautiful day, near glamour conditions of 8 to 15 knots, but with big up to 30 degree shifts. I was thinking to myself it was probably going to trip my numpty owners up. The race committee showing true German efficiency rapidly got race 4 away. I was as usual being spun up in circles with much chatter to be heard upstairs in my cockpit area. Then much to my surprise I was hanging out near the committee and a huge space opened up, so him upstairs could bear down more than usual and we were full gas, I had not crossed the line with the rev counter hitting the red line in quite a while.

The chat was good in the cockpit and they managed to link together the shifts for me so I really got in phase. I started to see a few old friends near me and gave them a little wave, it was a long old beat but I just kept on trucking. As I went toward the windward mark my best friend GBR 1567 with his reliable pair Jones/Kennedy was very surprised to see me cross in front of him.

I could hear some shouting ahead, the windward mark had been hit, it gave me a feeling of nostalgia as it was my wonderful former owner Andy Fitz on his new boat GBR 1567, he had to do turns giving us an opportunity!

I rounded the windward mark in 5th, I could not believe it, I was getting a taste for being up front again. We went deep to get the kite up, I don't think I had mentioned but my new crew is much more delicate being less than 60kg on my foredeck than my old crew Rich Dobson, and consequently I am running an odd set of rags, an embarrassingly small main and this very over-sized jib, some of my B6 mates have been teasing as to what has become of me lately.

Anyway I digress, so we go for the kite hoist, I dare say I am feeling a bit guilty this morning as I am very partial to drinking a pint of two upwind and I had rather indulged myself on the Baltic water and the general excitement - well we all do it don't we?

So as she went in to hoist the massive Lennon, it was just too heavy with all the onboarded Baltic water and it started to go into the water and I am not proud to admit it but I got a bit wobbly on my feet and we keeled over.

What a to do, the whole fleet passing me, I felt such a fool and my hopes for a top 10 finish were dashed.

We righted very quickly. I have to say we are the quickest in the Itchenor fleet at that these days, but for some weird reason my spinnaker had created one huge water filled shape stuck in the lowers which were so difficult to undo. Philip ended up fixing it all by grabbing a good handful.

We were by now dead last, but no, today I was not going to be beaten, and with true spirit and grit we made our way back up to 19th.

Results after Day 3: