International Canoe Europa Cup 2025

Brixham Yacht Club, England, 21-25 July 2025

This report, by Chris Hampe, first appeared in Yachts and Yachting

The Canoe fleet gathered under the aroma of fresh fish'n'chips in the dinghy compound under the cliffs at Brixham Yacht Club to sail for the Europa Cup. The cup itself is a fine Dutch glass drinking vessel that was presented to the class in 1986 by Brewers Heineken.

Day 1 started in a light Westerly breeze with the boats beating towards the Goodrington shore. Typical Torbay conditions saw those who hit the left hard come out on top and after two races there was nothing between Castle Cove Sailors Mike Fenwick and Sam Barker, each with a 1, 2 scoreline. Alistair Warren was in third after a slow start with a fifth in the first race followed up with a third in race 2.

Day 2 and a slightly stronger Westerly wind saw a regular championship race before the long distance race for the Sailing Challenge Cup. With the wind strength significantly increasing it made for a challenging lap of the bay with the final leg giving a perfect fast reach all the way from Paignton Pier to the finish line off Brixham Harbour entrance.

The final leg gave 2.5 miles of high adrenaline fast sailing and most sailors' grins were equally long back in the bar. Sam Barker took the win, chased hard by Alistair Warren, who had what is reported to be the most epic trip down the mine seen in recent canoe sailing. Well done Alistair, its straight tens from the judges here. The last boat home was Alistair's son, Henry Warren just in his second season of Canoe sailing, showing great determination to bring the boat home.

Day 3: forecast says no. With no sign of wind coming the initial postponement was quickly turned into a full day cancellation at 13:00. The class AGM was held in the evening with several sailors seen quickly adding various GPS devices from Sailmon and Vakaros to their baskets, showing perhaps how the proposed future rule changes may go. After the AGM a magnificent three course meal was provided by Brixham Yacht Club, a perfect end to a day of lounging around.

Day 4. With overnight wind scheduled to die away racing was brought forward for a planned 10AM start. Unfortunately the fleet missed the best of the breeze and the wind played a game of "Guess where I'm coming from next". Sam Barker took the first race, but a great first beat from James Hofman, in the only Asymmetric Canoe, dominated the second race, finishing a clear minute ahead of the rest of the field.

For the rest of the fleet the results would be a bit mixed. Fredrick Steimann, Dan Skinner, Alisdair Alston and Philip Robin all took at least one podium position to improve their scores. Mike Fenwick was one of the day's victims, his scoreline of 5, 7 let Sam Barker put one hand on the championship with a day to go.

Day 5 started with a flat calm day, but with the clearest weather and hottest sunshine of the week the forecast promised a building sea breeze. After a short delay race 7 was started at 11:45 with Sam Barker first to get onto port tack heading very quickly towards the Brixham breakwater. As Sam's dominance continued so did the building sea breeze and sunshine resulting in one of the finest days of Canoe sailing competitors could remember.

Brixham Yacht Club's excellent race team expanded the course for the second race, proving far more successful than my own attempts at a port tack start for the final race. Mike Fenwick's start was also unsuccessful: OCS. After leading the first rounds Sam Barker's main halyard failed, But he fixed it in the water to recover to eighth place. This left Dan Skinner to win the final race ahead of Alastair Warren and Clive Everest.

Many thanks to Brixham Yacht Club for holding a great championship.