The second day of racing at the Mistral European Championships at Puck, near Gdansk in Poland, was plagued by sporadic rain squalls and big windshifts across both the men’s and women’s courses.

With the opening days racing yesterday (Monday) cancelled due to an unstable breeze, both fleets completed the first three of four races in the qualification round of the regatta today.

While the breeze averaged around 10 -15 knots for a majority of the day, the frequent rain squalls saw it build to over 20 knots, with big windshifts, of up to eighty degrees in one case, adding another element for the crews to contend with.

In the 132 strong men’s fleet, which is split into two groups for the three day qualification stage of the regatta, World Class Performance International Performer Dominic Tidey (from Bognor Regis) emerged as the leading member of RYA Team GBR after two races in fourteenth place in his group. (no results are available from race three this evening).

“It was a challenging day. The conditions meant that it was really physical racing. You can’t win it on the first day, but you can lose it” said Dominic after racing.

In the second group, Ayrshire’s Adrian Jones was in seventeenth position, two places in front of RYA National Squad sailor Nick Dempsey (from Cambridgeshire), who will represent Great Britain at the forthcoming Pre Olympic regatta in Sydney, Australia.

In the single women’s fleet, a 24,21 scoreline from RYA Team GBR sailor Helen Cartwright (from Liverpool) puts her in twenty third place overall, just one place and one point in front of World Class Performance International Performer Christine Johnston, from Whithcurch in Hampshire

The men’s fleet will complete one more qualification race in their groups tomorrow morning before dividing into Gold and Silver fleets for second half of the regatta, while the women will remain as one fleet for the remainder of the championship.

POLAND: Mistral European Championships (after 2 days) Men’s Yellow Fleet (after 2 races)
1, Alescander Guyander (Fra) 1,4 – 5pts
2, Miroslaw Malek (Pol) 5,1 – 6pts
3, Jorge Maciel (Esp) 3,3 – 6pts
British Placings: 14, Dominic Tidey – 20,11 – 31pts 20, Gavin Rogers – 21,18 – 39pts 22, Jon Gould – 22,21 – 43pts 25, Leo McCallin – 24,28 – 52pts

Men’s Red Fleet (after two races): 1, Julien Bomtemps (Fra) 1,1 – 2pts 2, Carlos Espinola (Arg) 3,5 – 8pts 3, Przemyslaw Miarcynski (Pol) 4,4 – 8pts
British Placings:
17, Adrian Jones – 14,24 – 38pts
18, Alan Jackson – 22,16 – 38pts
19, Nick Dempsey – 13,27 – 40pts
23, Ben Proffitt – 21,20 – 41pts
31, Matthew Wemms – 34,28 – 62pts
35, James Scoular – 31,35 – 66pts

Womens fleet (after 2 races)
1, Lise Vidal (Fra) 1,4 – 5pts
2, Faustine Merret (Fra) 8,1 – 9pts
3, Jeanne Mailhos (Fra) 2,7 – 9pts
British Placings:
23, Helen Cartwright – 24,21 – 45pts
24, Christine Johnston – 23,26 – 49pts
28, Jessica Ash – 25,31 – 56pts