Traditional Spring National Cup was held in Le Havre in light conditions, which is pretty unusual at this part of the country ! That was even more difficult for the sailors trying to get a ticket for summer's championships because this place is well known for it's strong tide. Almost 100 sailors have been sailing the 5 races, and Jean Christophe Gache (Marseille) won front of Sandrine Maury, while the best girls went straight away to Hyères after Palma regatta.
The French Championship for Olympic Classes will stand in La Grande Motte (20-23 May), and for the first time, men are allowed to compete, which means two titles will be awarded for Men and Women both racing separately. We are waiting for a large numbers of entries to show the interest of our class for this new championship, especially from sailors over 20 years old who cannot compete anymore at the Youth Championship.
Olympic trials are going on and the lady who will represent France was supposed to be choosen as the best of the two international regatta held in April. Blandine Rouille was leading by more than 20 points over Solenne Brain, but Hyères could provide different weather conditions and make the result pretty uncertain !
I shouldn't forget to say that we recently got a new chairman for our class.Jean Francois Guillaumin, as a serious president, will now spend less time cleaning his wonderful wood boat to focus on making our class growing. We wish him the most successfull time !
To conclude, I have to announciate the venue of the 12 hours of CVT, this friendly event where sailors are competing on a lake the whole night ! The first prize is pretty attractive because the winning team get it's weight of french wine ! The yellow flag will stay in its box and all kind of propulsion are admitted as long as nobody can see you, which means you have to wait for the night and enjoy the darkness. For this event, we hope our webmaster Antoine Préveaux won't get asleep while sailing... that's what he did 2 years ago when the noise of the centerboard hitting the beach was the only thing to wake him up...
For more information about any of these events, check our website http://asso.ffv.fr/europe/ (or call the President very early in the morning !!)
Valerian Lebrun Serguei77@hotmail.com
www.europeclass.org