RS Feva European Championship Day 1 - GBR hold top spots

8:28 PM Mon 27 Jul 2009 GMT
Day one of the Allen RS Feva European championship kicked off in blazing heat at the Acquafresca yacht club at Brenzone on the eastern shores of Lake Garda. The morning hadn't looked too promising with an extensive cloud cover. Well that burned off by 10am leaving the heat and sun.

Potentially a classic ora in store but the story of the day was different. Race 1 was held in gently building breeze, race 2 was building more and all was well. Then for race 3 it got quirky, holey, patchey and downright odd with a weird chop.

The racing is being held in four flights with each flight racing each over twice during the qualification series. That means six races with one discard will decide the gold and silver fleets at the end of tomorrow - day 2. Then there will be three days of final fleet racing to decide the choccies and seasons bragging rights.

So how is it looking after day 1 and three races without discard. Team GBR appear to have the upper hand with the top 9 of the top 11 slots with Ireland getting in a 4th position and Italy getting seventh overnight. Then it gets very much more international with ITA in 7 more slots of the top 20 with the leading Swedish boat in 13th and the second Irish boat in 16th. With 40 boats making it into gold the Dutch team will be sweating with someone in 41st! Leading Danes are in 47th but counting a ninth so have the talent to make the cut. The sole American here is currently in 38th but should be much higher so we await the morning with interest. It is also rumoured that we have a Cayman Islander crewing in a Swedish boat! That's a great testimony to the welcome given last year by the Swedes at the worlds there.
So a couple of little nuggets to keep us going. Ollie Cooper and Callum Ellis are setting the pace with a 2,1,2. Given that our resident olympian described the conditions as very tough that says quite a lot for their mental toughness. The ever improving Oakham duo of Cathy Lear and Francine Counsell weren'y far behind with 2,4,2 whilst Robert Baddeley and James Taylor were lapping the conditions up to get 3rd on countback from Irish tyros Conor Lyden and Peter Stokes.

Conor's brother Brendan sailing with Marc Cudmore have the days hard luck story. Having a fourth in the first race they lost it due to failing to keep clear of a leeward boat. Proof that the fourth wasn't a flash in the pan came in race 3 when they scored a ninth. Sadly though race 2 was an OCS - so they'll have to count that at the end of qualifying.

Alessio & Mattia Bellico are clearly going to keep the home fires burning for th Italians with seventh overnight and scoring an impressive win in their 5,1,12 scoreline.