Three points in it

Joe Fly takes up the lead at the Ocean BMW Melges Europeans but cops a penalty in the process

"Like the most difficult game of snakes and ladders you could possibly imagine" was how Stuart Simpson of Team Barbarians described today's racing at the Ocean BMW Melges 24 European Championship in Torquay.

"Big fleet Melges 24 sailing is as tough as it gets, particularly in these light conditions. The boats accelerate rapidly and if you miss a shift or mess up a manoeuvre you're history" he conlcuded.

Three more races were sailed today, making eight of the twelve scheduled, and just three points now separate the four leading boats. Stuart Rix, helming Gill for Quentin Struass, and Gabrio Zandona, helming Joe Fly for Giovanni Maspero, are tied in first on 40 points. Andrea Racchelli sailing Altea is on 42 points and Francois Brenac, sailing with Phillipe Ligot's Partner & Partners Sailing Team, is on 43.

Last night the Race Committee reported the Joe Fly Team to the Jury for infringing the rules controlling support boats in the race area. The Jury found that the Joe Fly support boat had broken the rules and imposed a 20% penalty to the result of that race (race 5), which cannot be excluded from their overall score. As a result Joe Fly's score in race five went from 5 to 15 points.

Today's racing brought more very tricky conditions. There was a short delay in starting as the wind filled in from around south-southwest and its strength then varied constantly from 4 to 8 knots. Joe Fly was the most consistent performer with a 1, 4, 2 score. Thanks to a disastrous start Gill opened with a 19th, their worst result of the regatta so far, but improved as the day wore on with 12th and 3rd. Altea was consistent with 8, 10, 6 to stay firmly in contention, whilst for Partner & Partners everything in the garden was rosy with a 2nd and 1st, until the final race when they were caught up in another start line ruckus from which they could only get back up to 18th.

In the Corinthian Division, for all amateur crews, Germany's Alba Batzill is heading the fleet. He had a mixed set of results today with a 9th and 26th followed by a very close win in the final race. He'd led the fleet from start to finish but had a real tussle with Joe Fly on the final run and only just held them off. Batzill is also lying fifth in the overall results but the 22 point gap between him and the leaders puts him out of serious contention for the main trophy. Batzill's nearest contenders for the Corinthian Trophy are Antoine Albaret and Jermoe Aubert.

With two days and four races to go the Championship remains wide open with four crews battling for pole position. Tomorrow forecast is uncertain with pundits offering either more of the same light airs or a building breeze, we wait with baited breath!

			Helm	Pts	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8
1	ITA550	Joe Fly	Zandona Gabrio	40	3	31	2	13	15	1	4	2
2	GBR431	Gill	Stuart Rix	40	9	5	7	3	1	19	12	3
3	ITA438	Altea	Andrea Racchelli	41	4	2	11	8	3	8	10	6
4	FRA571	Partner & Partners	Francois Brenac	42	1	11	14	7	6	2	1	18
5	GER582	No Woman No Cry	Alba Bazrill	64	32	1	9	1	17	9	26	1
6	FRA387	Douarn-Mason	Vincent Sauleau	68	11	21	5	6	30	7	11	7
7	FRA261	Cotes d'Armour Perros Guirec	Antoine Albaret	74	8	9	1	33	18	3	23	12
8	FRA193	Cotes d'Armor	Vincent Biarnes	77	13	17	6	2	9	21	13	17
9	FRA173	Au Planning	Jerome Aubert	77	24	14	3	18	13	14	6	9
10	FRA422	Dyneema-Liros	Remy Arnaud	89	19	23	10	19	7	6	5	24
11	GBR406	Team Barbarians	Jamie Lea	90	2	3	30	29	4	15	7	37
12	FRA470	Cotes d'Armor Sail de Mer	Thomas Rouxel	94	6	4	51	4	29	24	8	19
13	SUI599	PoiZon Rouge	Jean-Marc Monnard	109	10	15	36	39	2	20	22	4
14	GBR516	Highland Heritage	Paul Brotherton	110	17	51	21	10	27	11	16	8
15	MON601	Sogeti	Antoine Frickey	111	14	13	18	51	10	17	18	21
16	GBR573	Xcellent	John Pollard	114	34	28	16	51	16	4	2	14
17	ITA297	Pioneer Investments	Andrea Formaro	116	18	38	12	21	23	16	21	5
18	GBR334	Easy Tiger	Tim Collins	118	42	8	19	5	21	28	3	34
19	GBR535	March Hare	Mike Henning	123	43	10	4	15	25	25	24	20
20	FRA358	Dottore Jigolo	P Y Lambert	123	37	6	32	42	8	13	17	10
21	NOR341	Dolly	Erik Arthur	126	40	20	17	14	15	18	20	22
22	AUT531	EdelweiB	Michael Schineis	129	5	29	13	51	32	12	9	29
23	GBR546	Helmut Rises Again	Nigel Grogan	132	16	18	27	11	14	27	19	33
24	FRA423	Zig Zag 15	Henri Samuel	146	7	19	24	12	33	30	28	26
25	GBR368	Team Turn-Turtle.com	Alan Brown	147	15	24	15	36	11	35	34	13
26	GBR527	Comfortably Numb	Simon Dobson	156	20	26	20	26	20	31	14	30
27	FIN476	Suunto	Kennet Thelen	159	41	7	23	32	12	29	15	51
28	GBR269	Ali 2	Ann Ashworth	164	25	12	33	16	22	26	30	36
29	FRA383	Merck Generique	Jean-Marc Sparfel	178	22	16	25	22	45	22	31	40
30	FRA461	Euro-Voiles	Christophe Barrue	186	12	42	8	43	34	23	39	28
31	GBR611	WKD Red	Joe Woods	197	21	22	26	44	24	40	37	27
32	GBR548	Team Panasonic	Adrian Peach	204	38	51	41	28	39	5	38	15
33	GBR589	Badger	Paul Lovejoy	206	49	34	35	40	36	10	35	16
34	FRA473	Gybe Set	Oliver Gellez	212	23	37	37	9	44	32	33	41
35	SUI382	Zerowo/e-brokerline.com	Michael Good	214	45	33	31	51	28	39	27	11
36	FRA471	Mu	Emmanuel Nebout	218	31	36	22	24	38	42	42	25
37	NOR279	Marella V	Nils Nordenstroem	222	35	35	39	31	31	33	25	32
38	NOR349	Party Girl	Jens Wathne	227	29	32	28	17	19	51	51	51
39	SUI578	Music 55	Ruedi Huber	230	33	27	49	34	35	38	32	31
40	GBR403	Envy	Dean Argent	232	30	41	34	23	26	44	43	35
41	GBR432	Wolf Cub	Glyn Williams	233	28	25	38	51	40	43	36	23
42	GBR452	Eric's Mate	Martin Wedge	250	27	51	46	20	48	37	29	43
43	GBR340	White Rabbit	Simon Henning	258	50	40	29	25	37	34	46	47
44	GBR453	Ramshackle	Paul Owen	267	26	43	42	27	43	49	40	46
45	GBR534	Hooligan	Norman Broom	269	39	39	43	30	42	36	41	42
46	GBR377	Henri Lloyd	Tony Jaffa	292	46	30	45	45	51	41	47	38
47	GBR478	www.formulacars.co.uk	Tim Jones	300	36	46	47	35	46	46	48	44
48	SUI270	Boorinsla	Ann-Kathrin Hoh	303	47	44	40	38	41	48	49	45
49	FRA272	Speed'eau	Antoine Jeu	314	44	51	44	37	49	47	45	48
50	MLT435	Wild Thing	David S Franks	316	48	51	48	41	51	45	44	39