Pwllheli, Wales
This was a joint event shared with the 420 Youth Europeans. Nino Shmueli was the technical delegate for the 470 class.
Relatively straightforward with the 470s with only 27 men and 13 women racing separately. The challenge of this event was having a different person as the flag puller every day, from a 13 year old girl to more experienced 'oldies'. As a result, on one occasion when a general recall was called, both the 1st Substitute and the AP was displayed at the same time. Since the flags were displayed after the start it is clear that the 1st Substitute is dominant and there was no problem just removing the AP quietly. An interesting conundrum though.
Robert Lamb was the race officer. John Whyte had his first taste of DRO and did a good job. The other members of the SolentXtra team attending were Ros Scott, Peter Knight, Peter Stuckey, Neil Williams and Martin Stephens. Ros brought her son, Evan, to expose him to the vageries of mark laying so he worked with Martin Stephens at the bottom end of the course.
Gareth Roberts, a SolentXtra member, was managing the event together with Tim Hall from the RYA.
The 470 class opt to provide a course representative in order to ensure consistency across their events. Orhan Tuker (TUR) was the rep on our course. Luis Ormaechea was the rep on the 420 course and this was the first time Rob has come into contact with Luis since Rob's IRO race management seminar in Lisbon in 2008 when Luis was one of the two instructors.
As usual, Pwllheli SC did a sterling job making the team welcome. It is a great club that we always enjoy visiting.
The weather was pretty good with a nice mix from 8 to 22 knots through the week. The second day was lost due to high winds and there was no racing on the last day with no wind, so the medal races were cancelled - always a disappointment.
Visit the event microsite.