1720 European Championships

5th September 2004

Rob and Pete Greenhalgh and their mainly family crew on G&T won their second major 1720 Sportsboat class title of the season when they clinched the Old Pulteney 1720 European championship to add to the UK title they won at Neyland in Wales in July.

Just as in the deciding race for the UK Championship, their title pursuit went to the wire with another showdown with Mike Budd and his crew on Gul after Budd won the first of today's two races.

"We made the decision to go out and try and win the race outright which were fortunate enough to do. We felt we had plenty of speed and made a few little changes to the rig setup. We made a clean start and were able to cross the fleet and then just had to keep an eye on what was happening behind," recalled Rob Greenhalgh. "It's been a pretty tough, close regatta but we did well in the big winds yesterday (Friday) when we just had loads of speed downwind with good boat-handling and we didn't capsize and that always helps."

Sailing with father David, who owns the boat and sister Libby, as well as Becci Eplett and Rachel Larman, the Greenhalgh brothers composed a winning margin of 9.5 points over Budd's Gul.

There was controversial finish for the local Clyde boat, King Quick with Old Pulteney, steered by Ruairidh Scott. They were penalised by the on the water umpire for excessive pumping of the mainsail on the first run. To take their penalty turns they had to drop the gennaker and make their 720 degree turn, dropping from second into the 20s. After having finished fourth in the first race their transgression proved expensive as they finished 10th in the race, dropping from a possible second overall to third.

"We had actually seen them in the first race and it was very obvious that when they had another boat coming down behind them they were doing it and so we had to do something," admitted Chief International Judge Joahn Devocht who administered the penalty.

Top Irish boat is the 2002 European Champions Aquatack. With Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell on the helm they had a consistent finish to their regatta with two hard worn second places, to finish fourth overall.

Overall after 10 races with one discard:
1 G & T 28pts
2 Gul 37.5pts
3 King Quick with Old Pulteney 44.5
4 Aquatack 58pts
5 Wet & Black 68pts.

I14 European Championships Greenhalgh/Johnson on form
23rd August 2004

Rob Greenhalgh and Dan Johnson haven't sailed all year in the International 14, but the reigning World Champions picked up where they left off by winning the European Championships in Switzerland in fine style. Sailing one of the new Morrison 12 hulls built by RMW Marine, the team overcame the flukiest and most variable of breezes on the Urnersee to win with a set of three first and three second places, with a discard of third. Behind them was a much closer battle for second, with Chips Howarth and Tim Hancock prevailing over defending European Champion James Fawcett and Dave Debrojewic by just a point.

Greenhalgh has been busy carving out a career in professional big boat racing this year, while Johnson has been working the beat as a policeman in Richmond, Surrey. The last time they sailed together was when winning the JJ Giltinan Trophy, the unofficial 18-foot skiff world championship. Having not attended a 14 event all season, Greenhalgh admits he was a little apprehensive about competing in Switzerland. "We came because it was the biggest event of the year. But we'd not done any sailing this year, so we were nervous of going. We thought we might not be on the pace, but we had good height and our VMG was very good."

The top three places were filled by three different hull designs, the Morrison 12, Bieker 4 and the Bieker 5 respectively. But Greenhalgh believes there is really very little to choose between the performance of these hulls. "We won the Worlds last year in a Morrison 11, so there's obviously nothing wrong with that shape either. What is much more significant is the incredible array of T-foil rudders that you see when you walk around the boat park. I think there's a lot more work to come from there, and the masts and sails, than from any hull developments."

Vertical gusts were another novel feature of the racing, and the combination of massive shift combined with outrageous gust took many sailors by surprise. Fawcett was twice capsized and dislodged from the head of the fleet, so it was happening to the best of them. The Brits dominated the racing, but German team Oliver Voss and Jens Holscher broke the GBR stranglehold on the top 10, coming 9th overall.

The next major regatta on the International 14 calendar is the World Championship, due to be held in Auckland this February.

Pos

Helm

Crew

Nat

R 1

R 2

R 3

R 4

R 5

R 6

R 7

Tot

1

Robert Greenhalgh

Dan Johnson

GBR

1

-3

2

2

1

1

2

9

2

Ian Howarth

Tim Hancock

GBR

4

1

4

1

3

-10

9

22

3

James Fawcett

Dave Dobrojenic

GBR

3

5

1

3

2

9

-10

23

4

Jarrod Simpson

Harvey Hillary

GBR

5

-14

3

11

5

2

7

33

5

Geoff Carveth

Adrian Murphy

GBR

2

6

9

-12

4

6

12

39

Robert Greenhalgh Racing
Stepping Up a Gear

1st March 2004

JJ Giltinan - 18’ Skiff World Championship
RMW Wins with a race to spare

8th January 2004

San Fran Showdown
RMW Wins every race

10th September 2003

International 14 World Championships
Greenhalgh & co World Champions

31st August 2003