For us, the beginning of the new season was quite quite. It started by 4 usual inter-regional races all over the country in early October. These races, as ever, were not very interesting due to their shortness (2 days) but it was a good start for the new season.
After that, all those who were near Paris had to go to the "Salon Nautique", a great meeting concerning every floating machines held in November, where our national association had, as it has every year, a space where there was a wonderful wood-made Cristalli Europe. For everybody, this event is the occasion to meat other Europe sailors (older as well as youngest).
Then, some of us went in the South of our superb country between Christmas day and New Year´s Eve to sail in Toulon for our traditional Christmas Race. This year, Toulon had decided to welcome us back. The last time we had been there was in 1996. This year, the weather was nearly the same as last time, there was a lot of different weather conditions. The first day, there was a medium wind for the 3 races. The second day, the wind went up to around 30 knots so that we had only the time to do one race before the wind got too strong. Next day, the wind had increased a lot more and we kept our feet on earth, near the club, where the organisation Committee was very kind to us. Next day, was not at all the same. We sailed 2 races in tiny wind conditions but even the two races were not the same type. It was quite difficult and you had to be very careful about the way the wind evolved and not stay at the centre of the race area. For the last day, we had a lot of sun but not enough wind to sail. So everybody had the time to pack his boat waiting for the final decision to be taken. This year we were very happy to welcome many foreigners. They came from Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. This has been a very good race with a very good organisation committee (each time we were coming back ashore we had hot chocolate waiting for us which was not a bad idea when you think that temperatures were near 4 degrees the second day. We want to thank all of those who came and made this International Christmas Race even better. We are expecting you this year from December 26th to 30th in Toulon !
As we have seen that foreigners liked to come to France, we want to tell you that our spring national cup will be held in La Rochelle (West of France) from April 17th to 21st. All of you are kindly invited. If you are interested, stay tuned to our website http://asso.ffv.fr/europe/ a very good one), the notice of race will be available soon. This race will probably be as good as it was in 2002 when Min Dezillie and Carolijn Brouwer came. For more information on our races in France, mail me antoine@preveaux.fr.st or mail our secretary, Séverine Blondet secretaire@europeclass.fr.st
Finally, about the fact the Europe is not Olympic anymore, we have not much time to know what the consequences will be but what we can say to-day is that it has not yet affected a lot. We have 8 girls who left (4 in Laser, 4 in 470) but one of the most important point was that Europe was one of the dinghies for our young championships is still OK. This point concerns as well the girls and the boys. The good news is that the Europe will stay at our young championships at least in 2005 and 2006. See you soon in France or in Finland... Antoine (FRA 5579)
www.europeclass.org