Renee GROENEVELD, Annenieke BES and Merel WITTEVEE (NED) at the gate in race 9 at the Yngling Europeans in Blanes, Spain ©yngling.org
4 April, 2008, Blanes, Spain
Yngling Women European Championship
Showdown time at Yngling Europeans
Going into the Medal Race on Saturday 7 points is the difference between the first 6 boats. They will all sail for the Gold and the Championship tomorrow. Today Friday the opening series was concluded. All the 10 races was sailed as scheduled in various conditions from very light winds yesterday and the nice 12-16 knots breeze that met the sailors in the two races of today.
Renee GROENEVELD, Annenieke BES and Merel WITTEVEE (NED) at the gate in race 9 at the Yngling Europeans in Blanes, Spain ©yngling.org
Renee GROENEVELD, Annenieke BES and Merel WITTEVEE (NED) showed consistency and with a 6-5 today they closed in on Sarah AYTONS (GBR) team and they are now on equal points at the first place. Two points behind the leading duo is the team of Anna BASALKINA (RUS) closely followed by the teams of Sally BARKOW (USA), Many MULDER (NED) and Ekaterina SKUDINA (RUS). One of these six teams will be the European Champion tomorrow.
The breeze picked up to around 15 knots at the start of race 10, the last race of the opening series.
The fleet is very close together and there are very small margins between first and last boat. In the first race of today Ulrike SCHUEMANN, Julia BLECK and Ute HOEPNER (GER) was fighting for the win when penalized close to the finish line. After completing their penalty turn they lost 20 boats. After 10 races no team in the 23 boat fleet have all single digit results, in fact only three boats have managed to have 8 of their races among the top ten.
The Yngling are moored just in front of the Club House and Resturant at the very functional regatta facilties at Club Vela Blanes.
Besides the Medal Race scheduled for tomorrow a Final Race will be sailed by the teams places 11-last. The Final Race will have the same format as a Medal Race with short course, double points, on water umpiring and no discard. This concept have been brought forward to give all teams the opportunity to sail in the Medal Race format under Championship conditions.
Top ten crews going into the Medal Race tomorrow Saturday
| Pos. | Sail Nr | Crew | Tot | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GBR 12 | Sarah Ayton/Sarah Webb/Pippa Wilson | 49 | 1 | 8 | RAF | 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 13 | 1 | 14 |
| 2 | NED 11 | Renee Groeneveld/Annenieke Bes/Merel Witteveen | 49 | 13 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 17 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| 3 | RUS 4 | Basalkina Anna/Ukraintseva Vladislava/Maximova Ekaterina | 51 | 16 | 2 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | USA 337 | Sally Barkow/Carrie Howe/Debbie Capozzi | 52 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 22 | 5 | 12 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 11 |
| 5 | NED 1 | Mandy Mulder/Brechtje Van der Werf/Floortje Hendriksen | 55 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 18 | 5 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| 6 | RUS 8 | Ekaterina Skudina/Diana Krutskikh/Natalia Ivanova | 56 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| 7 | GER 261 | Schuemann, Ulrike/Bleck, Julia/Hoepfner, Ute | 81 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 22 | OCS |
| 8 | ESP 3 | Monica Azon/Graciela Pisonero/Sandra Azon | 87 | 14 | 3 | 14 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 8 | 19 | 15 |
| 9 | FRA 7 | Le Helley Anne/Lepesant Catherine/Gerecht Julie | 92 | 3 | 10 | 18 | 15 | 16 | 13 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 10 |
| 10 | GRE 7 | Sofia Bekatorou/Sofia Papadopoulou/Virginia Kravarioti | 92 | 11 | 14 | 20 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
Full results at the Event web site.
Regatta results, images and reports will be posted at yngling.org and at the Event web site.
Note: This text and images can be used with reference to yngling.org