After a full series of eleven races at the European Championships in Alacati, Turkey, Nick Dempsey emerged the victor, after a tough duel with hot up-and-coming Dutch sailor Joeri Van Dijk.  Both sailors proved extremely consistent, both in the top three for 7 of the ten races (Nick scoring three bullets, and Joeri two). However, while Nick’s worst scoring result was a 6th, Joeri had to log a 9th and 10th place, which meant that they went in to the final ‘medal race’ with Nick 11 points ahead of Joeri. With double points on offer for this race, the situation could still change, but it turned out to be a fully windy race; conditions that Nick loves. He finished 2nd to the ultimate hi-wind supremo ‘Pont’ from Poland, which ensured his overall win in the regatta by a comfortable 13 points. And this against a very high strength fleet of 94 competitors, with plenty of previous European and World Olympic class champions present.

In the women’s fleet Bryony Shaw went in to the final medal race in 4th place overall. With one win and a third, and rarely outside the top half dozen she too had sailed an excellent series, but then she too excelled in the windy medal race to pull her up to 2nd overall! A superb result for the British team.

Incidentally, this means that the UK holds the European Championship in both the most important race fleets (Formula and RSX), which is a testament to the efficiency of our Youth Racing system, both Nick and Ross Williams being proteges of the Aloha class fleet. Congratulations all round!

Read next month’s magazine for the full story!