Two Australian International Moth sailors shone brightly amongst the twenty-eight competitors from Germany, Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Holland and Denmark attending the European Championships at Les Sables D'Olonne in France from 3 to 7 July. Current World and Australian Champion, Mark Thorpe won the event overall showing superior skill and experience over the entire fleet, whilst the young and talented World Moth Secretary, Rohan Veal from Victoria finished a remarkable third overall in his first International Moth event. Second overall was Ian Forsdike from Great Britain who was also crowned European Champion for the second time having won it also two years ago.

Prior to the event commencing, it seemed like Thorpe designed and built Hungry Tiger Moth was to be the most common hull shape amongst the top sailors along with either a mylar Truflow, monofilm KA or a UK made tri-radial sail. It was quite evident though, that Thorpe and Veal demonstrated quite a big boat speed advantage with their newly designed pocket luff sails, as some of the Europeans still use the traditional bolt rope rigs which are more suited to lake sailing. One sailor from Great Britain even showed off an un-stayed bolt rope rig on a very narrow Skippy hull.

However most of the discussion revolved around the controversial Moth owned by Freddy Duvoisin from Switzerland, that had pontoon like floats on the end of his wing tubes in order to delay a capsize. The sailors from Great Britain saw this as a trimaran design and consequently a breach of the Moth class rules. After a protest, the committee was unable to adjudicate and correctly referred the issue to IMCA for consideration.

Racing was due to begin on the third of July, however strong Atlantic storms and sail measurement issues, prevented racing from commencing. On day two, competitors faced much lighter winds of around 5-10 knots with a left over swell of around 2 metres. In these tricky conditions Forsdike ruled supreme, wining the first race convincingly after Thorpe missed an inner gybe mark and finishing in seventh.

In race three, Thorpe had a good battle with Duvoisin in the light air, unfortunately for Thorpe Duvoisin got through with the win and worse still, Thorpe was later disqualified by the race officials for apparently being over at the start line. Thorpe challenged the committee in a protest claiming that Veal was too windward and behind the line at the time of the alleged incident, only to find out that the race committee had now changed their minds about the 'real' time of the incident which left Thorpe OCS.

On day three, competitors were confronted with huge 2-3 metre waves, rain and a cold fresh wind of 15-18 knots from the north. Surfing and gybing the ultra light, 32cm wide Moths down the backs of these huge waves on a square run, was an awesome experience with most sailors playing it safe by sailing a tighter course downwind, otherwise they would risk a nasty capsize in the unstable Moth. It is also an acquired skill which proved the undoing of most of the fleet, especially those European sailors used only to lake sailing. Thorpe revelled in these conditions coming home with two clear wins and Forsdike posting two seconds ahead of Veal who had a fourth and a third. Only two races could be held before conditions deteriorated, so the sailors were sent in for some croissants and a hot shower.

Day four, which turned out to be the last day on which racing could be held, brought light to moderate, tricky offshore winds with much flatter water. Of the four races conducted, Thorpe scored three firsts and Veal one. The youngest sailor at the event, Andy Davies from Great Britain starred in the final race, getting to the windward mark first after a port end flyer, only to be later overtaken by Thorpe and Veal.

Day five brought insufficient wind for any racing and therefore most sailors packed up immediately for their long journey back home. Thorpe was presented with the Coupe de Europe Champion trophy, while Forsdike received the European Championship cup once again later on that day.

Overall Results (with two drops)
1st Mark Thorpe - AUS 9294 (7, 1, OCS, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1 - 9 points)
2nd Ian Forsdike - GBR 4034 (1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 4 - 17 points)
3rd Rohan Veal - AUS 9297 (4, 5, 3, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 3, 2 - 20 points)
4th Frederic Duvoisin - SUI 610 (2, 3, 1, 7, 6, 6, 4, 5, 7, 7 - 34 points)
5th Sven Kloppenburg - GER 1011 (5, 6, 6, 4, 4, 3, 6, 6, 4, 9 - 38 points)
6th Douglas Pybus - GBR 4042 (3, 7, 4, 6, 5, 7, 5, 4, 6, 6 - 39 points)
7th Patrick Ruf - SUI 607 (6, 4, 5, 5, RET, DNC, 7, 8, 5, 5 - 45 points)
8th Andy Davis - GBR 4042 (8, 8, 7, 8, 8, 5, 8, 7, 8, 3 - 54 points)
9th Colin Newman - GBR 4024 (13, 12, 9, 14, 9, 8, 9, 11, 10, 8 - 76 points)
10th Dirk Koepe - GER 1026 (9, 9, 8, 12, DNC, DNC, 16, 12, 9, 11 - 86 points)

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