Weather Hampers Louvre Sailing Series’ 15th Year

The weather was not on side during the 15th Louvre Autumn Sailing Series organised by the Guernsey Yacht Club. 

During the last two months, only three of the seven planned races took place and during the last two races signal flags N and A flew, meaning both races were abandoned due to stormy weather. 

Turnout was high for this year’s series and the good sailing days rewarded those participants.  Fifteen yachts competed in the two yacht classes and 30 dinghies and windsurfers competed in four classes, which included a Feeder category catering for junior club members looking to move up to the main fleet races and to other novices.

Derek Baudains, Louvre CEO, attended the end of series prizegiving, and said: ‘We have supported the series for 15 years and during that time we have seen it go from strength to strength with some real competitive sailing.  It’s a great series and its success is a credit to the Guernsey Yacht Club.’

In the  Racers class, the results were very close, with just two points separating first place from fourth. Martin Priest’s Fandangle ended with the same number of points as second place Roger Martel’s Kaya II but the former had two first places and a sixth to the latter’s first, second and fifth, so Fandangle was victorious on countback. Martin Ozard’s Blackjack came third. 

In the Cruisers category, the winner was also closely fought, this time between John Falla’s Banjaard and Dino Castro’s Dark Horse. 

Dark Horse won with two firsts and a second with Banjaard taking second place and Ian Le Maitre’s Panthalassa coming third. 

The close nature of the results continued into the dinghy fleets.  Henrik Asplund and Georgia King’s Surprise, Surprise took first place in the fast Dinghies class with Dave Aslett and Andy Bridgman’s Shock coming a close second. 

Andrew Round from the Guernsey Yacht Club said: ‘Whilst we didn’t quite have the series we had hoped for there was some fantastic racing enjoyed and it came down to quality rather than quantity.  Louvre has been a fantastic sponsor and we thank them for their continued support.  We’re looking forward to a fuller series of racing next autumn.’ 

You can read the full results of the series here.