The third day of the International Six Metre European Championship 2024 Trofeo Xacobeo off Sanxenxo brought more tough conditions for the competitors, who completed race five of the eight race series in heavy mist, tricky seas and a 12-14 knot west-south-westerly breeze.
Overall Standings
A second place in race five helped His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain’s Bribon consolidate her place at the top of the Classic Division leaderboard, which she now heads by five points from Ossi Paija’s Astree III (Nylandska JK) who finished the race in fourth. Classics race five was won by Mauricio Sanchez-Bella Carswell’s Titia (RCN de Sanxenxo), who retains her third place overall. Miguel Lago Cereceda’s Alibaba II (MRCYB) claimed sixth in the race and overtakes Louis Heckly’s Fun (YC de France) who was over the line at the start and failed to return, dropping him down to fifth overall.
On the dock Pepe Lis, tactician aboard Classics race winner Titia, summed up the conditions and looked ahead to the remaining races. “Well, we have been here for three days now. Three days with a lot of humidity and rain, and it’s hard to see the windward marks. The leeward ones too. Well, difficult. The championship has not been easy at all. When we went out, there were very good conditions. It was about 12-14 knots or so and there was visibility. At the start we managed to get off quite well, not too tight on the windward side. The shifts were good left and right, ten to fifteen degrees and we managed to hook the first right, then a little bit of left and then we got in front and from there it was more or less just about controlling the fleet. The hardest part was almost finding the leeward mark, that was really hard. The day after tomorrow we have very light winds, very light, and the direction is not very clear, and on Saturday too. In other words, there are three days left, three days to do three races in really difficult conditions. But we’ll see, that’s where we are. It’s better to be where we are now than further back.”
Going into the day the Open Division had been a three-way tie between Basil Vasiliou’s Jane Ann (New York YC), skippered by Steffan Lindberg, Rainer Muller’s Junior (SN De Geneve), skippered by Loic Forestier, and Henrik Andersin’s Oiva, (Nylandska JK). For Jane Ann the race was something of a disaster and they finished tenth, which drops her down into fourth overall. A sixth place was just sufficient to allow Junior to take the overall lead, but she is now tied on 20 points with Violeta Alvarez’ Stella (RCN Sanxenxo), who won the race in impressive style. Oiva finished seventh in the race to put her a single point behind the leaders in third. Jane Ann drops down to fourth, four points behind the leader and tied on 24 points with Jeremy Thorp’s Battlecry (Royal Yacht Squadron).
Back ashore Open Division race winner Violeta Alvarez was pleased with how their day went. “Well, it was very wet, very foggy, but we enjoyed it. The most difficult thing was to find the marks. It was really difficult; we couldn’t see where we were. But we just kept going a little bit more and did a few extra tacks just because we couldn’t find the windward mark. My crew is very special, the boys are superb, and I love them all. Pablo [Iglesias – tactician] was a little bit stressed because he couldn’t see the marks and it was such shifty conditions, but it was very nice. I have a very good crew, and I’m very lucky. Our mood has always been positive. Yesterday when it was raining, we were singing songs, so we’re always positive. We have fun. We. We call ourselves the Happy Team. So, we shall continue to be happy and enjoy ourselves whatever comes.”
Classic Division Race Roundup
Classic Division race five went to Titia who led the fleet off the line and never really looked back. Behind her Catalin Trandafir’s Essentia from the CYC Constanta led Bribon around the top mark, setting up what was to become a battle royal for the rest of the race. Essentia did everything she could to defend but on the second beat Bribon went further left and snuck into second position on the approach to the second windward mark. Essentia challenged Bribon at every opportunity on the last run, but at the line, it was Bribon that followed Titia home with Essentia third, Astree III fourth and Aida fifth.
Open Division Race Roundup
Stella got a fantastic start in the Open Division and lead the fleet throughout the race. Whilst Stella stretched away for a comfortably victory, behind her the fight was on between Rainer Muller’s Duclop (SN de Geneva), helmed by Frank Narbone, defending Champion Dieter Schoen’s Momo (SC St Moritz), Eugenio Galdon Brugarolas’ May Be XIV (RCR de Cartagena), Jeremy Thorp’s Battlecry (Royal Yacht Squadron), Jan Eckert’s Ginkgotoo (SN de Geneve), and Junior. Finding the marks and at times even locating your fellow competitors in the heavy mist made the race extraordinarily challenging, but on the line Duclop held second with May Be XIV third. Momo took her best result of the regatta at fourth, Battlecry was fifth and Junior sixth.
The warm welcome of the Real Club Nautico de Sanxenxo’s clubhouse and the wonderful apres sailing hospitality provided by the hosts, which includes a range of local beers, wines and produce, was hugely appreciated by the sailors. And once again the drying facility in the club’s boiler room came into its own!
Three races remain to be sailed in the eight-race series which concludes on Saturday 5 October.
Additional information about the 2024 International Six Metre European Championships is available at 6meuropeans2024.com. You can follow the regatta action online at:
This message is to advise members about a change of location for the 2024 European Championship.
This year’s European championship, which was originally planned to take place on the Ile de Porquerolles in late September and early October 2024, will now take place in Sanxenxo on dates as close as possible to the original dates planned for Porquerolles. A copy of the offer from the Asociacion Española Seis Metros to host the event, in conjunction with the Real Club Náutico de Sanxenxo, is attached below. A Notice of Race (NoR) will be issued as soon as possible.
In planning for an event at Porquerolles, ISMA has been well aware of the need to publish a Notice of Race and started discussions last year with members of UF6mJI (the French Fleet) to agree suitable wording. UF6mJI were liaising with the Yacht Club de Porquerolles (YCP), and we agreed we had enough detail to pass the text to the YCP by the middle of December. YCP responded with a proposed NoR on 8 January, at which point UF6mJI commented: “this document only partially reflects the work that we have carried out together and for which YCP has always been informed”. ISMA identified a number of issues to be resolved which were passed to YCP on 12 January.
In subsequent exchanges, it became clear that YCP were unable or unwilling to make the changes requested or to discuss the matter further. In an e-mail sent at 1451 on Tuesday, 16 January, the President of YCP said: “We regret to inform you that we will not be organizing the 6 mJI European Championship scheduled to take place in Porquerolles from September 27 to October 2, 2024. Following all our exchanges, and unable to respond favourably to all the technical requests made to ensure the quality of welcome required for this event, we will not be able to ensure the organization of this event.”
The ISMA President was unable to contact the President of YCP until a telephone call on the afternoon of Wednesday, 17 January. In that call, it became clear that YCP’s decision was final and there was no room for further discussion.
Since YCP’s position became clear, ISMA officers have worked to identify urgently the safest alternative option, matching as far as possible the dates planned for Porquerolles to avoid further programme disruption. They have concluded that the most practical and certain alternative is to accept the offer from the Spanish Fleet.
Best wishes
Tim Tim Russell Louis Heckly Executive Secretary ISMA President ISMA
International 6 Metre Association 