Back to Back Win in Poland for Steve

Steve Allen AUS-0 takes a back to back win in Poland.

First the Euro Challenger combined with Polish Championships.
Steve took a convincing win, dominating 7 out of the 11 races to take the event win ahead of a very strong fleet. Attracting all the top guys coming to this event for a warm up for the next event in Leba.

1st Steve AUS-0
2nd Wojtek POL-10
3rd Gonzalo ARG-3

Then came the big event in Leba, combining the European Championship with one leg of the GP FW World Tour. With lighter wind, a controversial uneven split fleet format and many guys eliminating mistakes made in the previous event, the results were very close right to the end. The race directors fortunately saw that the blue fleet, which included the top three of this event, was unfairly stronger than the yellow fleet, so organised gold and silver fleets after six races instead of the usual eight.

Steve won the first race by jibing earlier to overtake Jesper on the last downwind.

In the second race, Steve was coming second at the last upwind mark. He had just tacked and was getting on the plane when Gaastra team mate, Ross, came full speed at Steve, took no evasive action, hit the back of Steve’s boom and sent him crashing over the front. While Ross was then able to easily point up and sail over the top of Steve to take 2nd in this race, Steve lost many places and had to struggle to finish 5th. Steve called a protest but decided not to proceed with it after Ross’s dad, Ceri, advised Steve that he was in the wrong. Confused by Ceri’s interpretation of the rule, Steve later spoke to the judges about it and found that he was fully in the right. He could have had Ross disqualified from this race, greatly affecting his final results.

In the 3rd race, Steve rounded the top mark in second but, still fuming about the crash, was unable to clear his mind, so made many mistakes and dropped to 4th in this race.

In the 4th race, Steve gathered his composure and was again able to focus hard and win.

Steve had many opportunities to win more races, but bad luck semed to dog each race. Fortunately, he managed to stay consistent and in contention.

Steve finally felt his luck change on the 2nd last day in the last race of the day. Steve was in around 6th position on the last downwind when he saw the leaders all sailing into much lighter wind, making it impossible to make the bottom mark in one jibe before the beach. So Steve jibed off immediately on a gust to the other side of the course. When Steve jibed back across to the other guys he had jumped into second position, making for a close fight on the last day.

In the first race of the last day, with off shore wind, Steve was coming to the top mark with Jesper competing for first place but just missed the mark by half a meter or less and a double tack put him back to around 6th position. In the last downwind, Steve caught a good gust and sailed much deeper than the leaders and jibed much earlier to close the gap and rounded the bottom mark in even 3rd with Ross. As it was an upwind finish, Steve and Ross tacked off to try find better wind than the leaders, Jesper and Gonzalo, who looked to be getting into light wind. The tack off paid off well. Steve overtook Jesper and closed the gap on Gonzalo, but not quite enough to win. This was still good enough, however, since the top three in the overall ranking all finished behind Steve.

There was then a long wait as the off shore wind dropped off to nothing. Then with just an hour and a half left, we were called out into a nice side shore wind. Ross and Jesper went out early to test the conditions on their 12m sails. As the wind was building and the water becoming rougher, Steve waited and opted for the 11m, a good choice but still a bit big for the freshening wind. Steve struggled a little on the upwind, having kept a lighter wind mast track position, but pulled back a lot on the downwind to round the last mark together with Wojtek and Gonzalo. Fighting in the strong wind, Gonzalo and Steve became confused about where the finish was, and let Wojtek run away to win. Steve realized just before Gonzalo and got the jump on him to take another 2nd with Gonzalo 3rd.

For the last Race, everyone quickly rigged their smallest sails for the strong wind. The points were now so tight that any of the top four guys could win the event. Steve and Ross saw that the wind had changed and went for a port tack start. But Wojtek had a perfect starboard tack start right on the pin end and rounded the top mark just ahead of Steve, who played it a little too safe, seeing the other podium contenders behnd, and had overlaid the top mark. Ross rounded in 3rd. Steve then made a better jibe than Wojtek on the downwind to take the lead at the bottom mark. Steve got a couple of bad waves on the second upwind and some guys caught up. Thinking it was just Wojtek passing him, Steve didn’t worry too much until he saw it was Ross. Ross then tacked too tight on the lay line, forcing him to double tack. Wojtek and Steve went just a little further and Wojtek just made the mark. Steve was on the same line as Wojtek but had a bad wave just before the mark and also had to double tack, letting Pawel past. But great down wind speed and tactics allowed Steve to pass Pawel and close the lead Wojtek and Ross had. It was a supper tight race to the finish line, all three finishing board to board, Wojtek 1st Ross 2nd and Steve 3rd.

Steve and Ross finished with equal top points, with Steve winning on a count back of next-best discarded races – Ross with a 6th and Steve a 4th . Jesper was just one point back in third.

In the end, it was good that Steve didn’t protest Ross, since Gaastra finished 1st and 2nd and the tightest results ever made for a very exciting last day of racing, Steve coming back from 4th position during the whole event to win in the very last race.

Final Results;

1st Steve AUS-0 Gaastra
2nd Ross GBR-83 Gaastra
3rd Jesper DEN-111 NP/SB