2025 OK Dinghy European Championship in Warnemünde - Day 2
by Robert Deaves 8 Jul 16:13 NZST
4-13 July 2025
Charlie Cumbley, GBR on day 2 of the OK Dinghy Europeans at Warnemünde © Robert Deaves /
www.robertdeaves.uk
Britain's Charlie Cumbley holds a two-point lead at the half-way stage of the 2025 OK Dinghy European Championship in Warnemünde, Germany, after two more races were held on Monday. He won both his group races, while Germany's Andre Budzien and Canada's Ben Flower won the races in the other group. Flower sits in second with Sweden's Daniel Björndahl third. Four races remain.
The breeze had turned right, so was more onshore and was a solid 12-15 knots with a moderate confused sea state. as the boats left the harbour in sunny conditions. However as per forecast it dropped during the day. The yellow group got the best of the day in their first race and were on the final leg before the blue fleet got under way after multiple recalls.
Budzien led from start to finish in the first yellow group race, chased hard by Björndahl, with Flower never far behind. Then in the second Flower found the front to take his first win of the week. Cumbley won both races in blue group, the first after a long battle with Andy Davis as both extended from the fleet. In the second race Denmark's Soren Christensen led round the top, but Cumbley was soon in the lead, and even though he lost it again on the second upwind, Cumbley moved back in front on the final run as the wind dropped and became very patchy.
Björndahl commented. "It has been a fantastic day on the water. I managed to get two second places, starting at the pin in both races. It was quite tricky conditions with choppy waves and wind shifts, but I managed to sail quite well. I had good boat speed and good reaches and downwind when I passed some other boats, so I am really satisfied with the day. Yesterday was also a good day, so a stable series right now and let's see how things go.
"It is very tough. There are many skilled sailors here, though some have not really succeeded yet. But it is definitely a tough and competitive fleet."
Cumbley had a longer day on the water with more general recalls in the blue fleet.
He said, "We a had a bit of waiting around while the other groups had some generals, and then we got a few generals in and all the time the breeze was slowly dropping. In the first race we were still hiking, so quite nice and it was quite bumpy and then it got tricky downwind as there wasn't quite enough wind to get you on the waves, but I managed to have a battle with Taxi [Andy Davis] and got the better of him on the run so won the first race.
"The second race was very patchy, getting lighter and lighter and just trying to keep in some pressure. The upwinds were pretty grim because of the left-over sea state and you bounced around going downwind, but pretty pleased to win that one after losing my way up the second beat. So great day; two bullets."
For the remaining four races, the fleet is now split into gold and silver groups for Tuesday and Wednesday, and the format so far means the points are very close, so the top of the gold fleet is almost starting over again, only twice as hard.
Results after Day 2: (top ten, 4 races)
1 GBR 6 Charlie CUMBLEY 3pts
2 CAN 26 Ben FLOWER 5pts
3 SWE 24 Daniel BJÖRNDAHL 5pts
4 GBR 11 Andy DAVIS 7pts
5 GER 71 Andrè BUDZIEN 10pts
6 DEN 12 Jens ECKARDT 11pts
7 DEN 3 Jørgen SVENDSEN 12pts
8 SWE 386 Mikael BJÖRNDAL 15pts
9 DEN 24 Steen CHRISTENSEN 16pts
10 GBR 2261 Nick CRAIG 16.5pts
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