2009 First 40.7 National Championships

Page last updated:

02 June 2009

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2009 First 40.7 National Championship, 23rd - 24th  May 2009

Race Report

The 2009 UK Beneteau 40.7 National Championship saw two days of close competition on the weekend of 23-24 May. Overall victory in 2009 went to Euphorix with Philospohie IV and Love Shack taking second and third respectively.

The championship was arranged by the UK 40.7 Class Association and run by the Royal Southern Yacht Club under IRC. The event provided for the usual mix of on water racing and off water camaraderie.

A short first beat saw Euphorix, Love Shack and Philosophie IV fighting for top 3. With the breeze increasing to 10-12 kts during the course of the 1.5hr race the downwind legs were all about working the gybe angles.

Race 2 got underway quickly after the last boats cleared the previous finish line. Incognito, Beam and Philosophie IV all had good starts in the, again, light breeze. The fleet pushed into the shallows off the mainland shore to get a tidal advantage after starting near Royal Southern. Philosphie IV, Eurphorix and Incognito took 1, 2 and 3 with Love Shack in 4th. Portia and Beam were closely matched for 5th and 6th.

The type remains as strong as ever under IRC and the event proved to be an excellent way to kick off the 2009 summer season where 40.7s will, as usual, surely feature well.

The fleet gathered for race 1 with 8-10kts of breeze from the SE and a forecast for less during the weekend. The fleet got away cleanly but an attempt at a port start by Encore resulted in them and Incognito coming together on the line with Love Shack and Beam less than impressed by the resulting obstruction to their run off the line

Race 2 was followed by a 1hr postponement as the wind died and gave the crews time for a little R&R.

Race 3 saw the Race Officer attempting to get the fleet away in 7-8kts. Incognito and Philosophie were OCS and went back to clear the line. Sadly the race office got confused and between Genie’s and Incognito’s similar sail numbers and tried to convince a horrified Genie that she was OCS

The fleet was working hard to keep their kites full on the first downwind leg as the breeze steadily reduced, with the fleet close to the Bramble bank in a Spring low tide, Euphorix went aground and then retired.

Team Euphorix after winning the 2009 UK 40.7 Nationals

Eventually the Race Officer decided to abandon due to, apparently, no wind at the leeward mark but more than likely due to a realization that the mark had less than 1m of water under it!

Day 2 greeted the fleet with less than 5kts breeze. After an hour’s postponement, mostly spent avoiding Genie’s water bombs, the wind filled in at 6-8kts from the SSE. The fleet got away cleanly in race 4 and the breeze slowly increased to 9-10kts. Again it was a tussle between Philosophie IV, Love Shack and Eurphorix for 1st, 2nd and 3rd with Encore and Incognito fighting for 4th and 5th.

Another 1hr postponement preceded race 5 as the race officer waited for more breeze but the final race of the event saw the strongest breeze as it built to 12-15 kts. With a start line set close to the mainland shore and the wind in the SSE with a strong west-going tide it was a case of plugging along the shore out of the tide to the East before taking the decision when to tack out into the tide for the windward mid Solent mark

A long downwind leg, again working the gybe angles, was followed by a short beat to the finish. Eurphorix, Philosophie IV and Incognito took 1st, 2nd and 3rd closely followed by Love Shack in 4th with Portia and Beam tussling for 5th and 6th.

Despite the tricky conditions, the race officer, managed 5 races all of which (bar the abandonment) were well contested by the entire fleet. In the end the consistency, ability and excellent light airs sailing of Euphorix won the day.

Overall results are show below and more photos can be found at: www.eddiemays.com