European championship win for Percy & Simpson

Andrew Simpson (90-95) has notched up another Star class triumph with Iain Percy, beating Sweden and winning the Star class European championship in Kiel, Germany, in July.

According to a report in The Times August 6, the Olympic gold medalists were not aquite at their peak and lost the overall regatta to Brazil, their arch rivals. A punishing 13-hour-a-day training regime looms. Already the pair have begun to practise at the 2012 Olympic sailing venue in Weymouth (now completed) in order to get used to the wave patterns and the winds in the harbour.

Funding for the pair's £200,000-a-year budget, reports The Times, is subsidised by earnings from the pair's involvement in the America's Cup and by sponsorship from Skandia and Citroen.

In the meantime Iain Percy is taking time out to be best man this weekend (August 8/9) at the wedding of Andrew Simpson, a close friend since the two met at an under-16 national regatta when both were aged 8.