Doug Rastello and his USA team on ‘Good To Go’ have won the J/70 European Championship hosted by the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.
While the American crew were the outright winners of the 48-boat keelboat fleet, it was the runners-up from Portugal, Vasco Serpa and Solyd Sailing Team/SailCascais who become the European Champions.
For the second day in a row there was barely a breath of wind across Portland Harbour or Weymouth Bay and the race committee made a call for abandoning racing at midday.
It was a frustrating but unavoidable conclusion to the regatta which saw five races take place in light and shifty conditions out in the Bay.
There were no complaints about the temperature in the late 20s but the light easterly gradient made it impossible for afternoon sea breezes to develop on the south coast of England.
While five races was well short of the target for the championship, there could be no doubting that Rastello’s crew proved worthy winners of the regatta.
Their scores of 11,3,2,7,6 were significantly more consistent than the rest of the fleet, the Americans racking up just 18 points with discard compared with 29 points for the Portuguese in second overall.
It’s a sign of just how tricky the conditions were, that the top-placed boat to win an individual race was the Mexican entry in fifth overall, Zaguero skippered by Ignacio Perez.
Of the 48 entries, 32 were Corinthian, a typically high proportion of the J/70 fleet in Europe.
It was a fierce battle for top honours in the Corinthian division with just 3 points separating the top crews from Sweden, Switzerland and Great Britain who took 8th, 9th and 10th places overall.
Pär Svärdsson’s crew on Happy Yachting came out ahead for Sweden, with Stefan Seger’s Aiola in second and Jonathan Calascione’s Calypso in third.
First youth team were Delft Challenge from the Netherlands, skippered by Mees de Graaf, and finishing 17th overall.
The top female helmsman was Josie Gliddon who steered Charlie Thompson’s Brutus II to fourth overall, missing the podium on tiebreak.
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