Sailing: Owen plans for the worlds
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Your support makes all the difference.STORM CLOUDS may have brought an early end to the International 6-Metre European Championship in Cowes yesterday. But blue skies are beckoning for the century-old class of racing yacht and the sun was already shining for the winner, Switzerland's Bernard Haissly.
A forecast of possible gale conditions in the Solent today persuaded the Royal Yacht Squadron to run two races instead of one yesterday and that allowed Haissly to wrap up the championship with a race to spare.
There was a moderate westerly for the first, still archaically long, five-leg race, which Haissly was winning until pipped at the last by current world champion Bruce Owen. Still, his impressive two firsts, two seconds and a fourth in the opening quintet were enough.
After a shaky start, the final day was a good one for Owen as he pushed up to second overall but frustrating for rival Tony Canning, who missed third by just a quarter of a point to Sweden's Patrick Fredell.
The class now looks forward to its world championships, with Owen the only Briton to have won that crown (twice) since 1930. He is hoping to entice back into a game now dominated by Europeans at least a couple of Americans for the 1999 worlds. The sugar-coated carrot is the venue, Nassau.
Nearly all the modern fleet in Cowes will be shipped to the Bahamas while much work will continue to be done at home. "There are no average boats any more," says Owen. "They are all competitive and that involves a complex programme of new sail designs using the most modern techniques plus having more keel design work done."
Why is so much money, eff-ort, and love poured into a class that last saw Olympic duty in Helsinki in 1952? Owen points first to the more prosaic. "Fair sailing in nice places and we attract the top yachtsmen. Lots of America's Cup boys have been through this school at one time or another."
But he quickly reveals the more romantic reasons for his beautifully varnished version, Scoundrel. "They always were the most lickety-spit, tickety-boo pieces of equipment and, as far as I am concerned, nothing has changed," he said.
INTERNATIONAL 6-METRE CLASS EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP (Cowes): Race 5: 1 B Owen (Scoundrel) GB; 2 B Haissly (Fleau) Sui; 3 A Canning (Lion) GB. Race 6: 1 P Fredell (May Be XIV) Swe; 2 J Prentice (Battlecry) GB; 3 S Rogers/M Richardson (Thisbe)GB. Final standings: 1 B Haissly, 10.5pts; 2 B Owen, 15.5; 3 P Fredell 16.
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