The waters of Rungsted, Denmark were the theatre of last week’s 29er European Championships where four Irish partnerships competed in the 165-boat fleet, writes Thomas Chaix.
A full series of 17 races was delivered by the Royal Danish Yacht Club from Thursday 30 June to Tuesday 5 July in varied and certainly challenging conditions, with a few long days afloat chasing after the wind.
The nine-race qualifying series over the first three days saw mostly light and shifty westerlies. Day one started with Johnny Flynn and James Dwyer-Mathews taking the first race win of the event, the beginning of three days of ups and downs for the boys that unfortunately concluded with a BFD disqualification on the final race, costing them a Gold fleet qualification.
The Van Steenberge siblings, Clementine and Nathan, also suffered from an inconsistent series including a BFD. But their excellent speed downwind also earned them three runner-up finishes which were enough to make the Gold fleet cut.
Nathan and Clementine Van Steenberge had a golden few days in Denmark despite some devastating setbacks
Elsewhere, the Riordan sisters Emily and Jessica had a more consistent series but just short of the Gold fleet. And the youngest of the Irish teams, Lucia Cullen and Alanna Twomey, settled with Bronze despite the boost of a fourth-place finish in their first race.
The finals started with a champagne sailing day. The wind had gone south and the bay delivered a great 15 knots of relatively steady breeze with big waves.
In Gold, disaster struck with the Van Steenberges suffering gear failure on race one after a solid start. The repair was challenging but achieved afloat and they could resume racing in races two and three, finishing the day with an excellent sixth.
In Silver, Johnny and James climbed into the top five with a solid 1-12-8 scoreline. The Riordans found the going harder and finished their day 33-UFD-22, dropping ranks overall. It was also a challenging day for Lucia and Alanna in Bronze, dropping outside top 10 (40-25-24).
Clementine and Nathan (3169) on the Gold fleet start line
The breeze then went to the west again, delivering a return of crazy shifts, random gusts favouring the specialists of the game of snakes and ladders.
It was a challenging day in Gold with frustrating outcomes. Despite this, Clementine and Nathan got back into top 25 for the first time of the week with a scoreline of 34-3-32 and discarding the previous day DNC. Johnny and James came back strong after a disastrous first race (discarded) to climb to third in Silver (36-10-2 on the day). The Riordans sailed a consistent day with a 19-19-14 to climb ranks again. And Lucia and Alanna had a stronger day, climbing back in touch of the top 10 (14-3-4).
Two races were sailed on the final day. The Van Steenberges sailed very well, making gains all around the course on the first race, taking ninth and getting themselves within a hair of a podium finish in the mixed category. They kept the best for the final race, leading the fleet from the first windward to the finish. The race win allowed them to jump in 18th overall (15th Europeans) and squeeze into second in the Mixed category.
The Silver fleet podium that was narrowly missed by Johnny and James
In Silver, Johnny and James had a lot of points to bridge to win silver but certainly gave it their all, winning the first race and then delivering what was probably the best catch-up of the event converting a deep first windward position into a fifth. A mere two points remained and they settled for second overall (42nd at the event).
Emily and Jessica Riordan had a solid seventh in the first race and completed their event 21st in Silver (61st overall). With a 13th and 4th, Lucia and Alanna also climbed back into the Bronze top 10 (7th; 89th overall).
Counting our best all boys, best all girls and best any gender team, Ireland finished once more near the front of the nations cup in sixth position overall.
The next outing for the Irish 29ers will be the Worlds in El Balís, Barcelona in August where eight partnerships will compete in a fleet of 240 boats and growing.
