First of all, I want to thank all the finish organization team and particularly Tina who has been so nice with all of us and who has made the championship a good one, even if the wind conditions were not very good for some of us.
As we are talking about the European Championship which has been held in Helsinki (FIN) this year, we can say that for the French team, it has been a very difficult championship. Only one French man succeeded in being in the gold fleet (I think it has never happened before). But which guy? Thomas Ribeaud, a young sailor of us. It was his first sailing year on Europe dinghies and he was very good. He finally finished 11th after being 2nd and 3rd during the race. Congratulations to him and thank you to his father who has accepted to drive the French motor boat.
There was also the European Youth Championship next. Thomas made well again. The French team was more-less young but results were not as good as expected for everybody. We hope it will be better next year.
Then for 10 of our sailors and 10 German sailors, there was a one week training together in France, in Pareloup. According to coaches and sailors, it was a good experience. This training week was held before our National summer race at the same place. Not only sailing was the purpose but also some other activities like walking.
The National summer race, as we’re talking about it, was a sympathetic regatta with a lot of foreigners 10 Germans, 10 Spanish guys and a Belgian girl. The sailors made 9 races in different weather conditions: 4 in medium winds, 3 in strong winds and 1 in slight winds.
In Poland, for the World Veteran Cup, 13 French sailors moved and two of them were on the podium. Pieter was second after the nearly untouchable Soren Johnsen and Séverine was third (and first woman for the second year). If I say “nearly untouchable”, it is because Soren won all the races except 2 which were won by Pieter and Séverine. A lot of French guys made well and had a lot of fun. What a wonderful race!
Now, let’s talk about the future. In October/November, our National fall race will be held in Biscasrosse, South-West of France. It will begin on October 28th and finish on November 1st. As it is every year, it will be our most important race of the year if you consider the number of participants with at least 100/120 boats expected. We also expect to see a lot of foreigners for this race which take place in a very pleasant environment.
We hope to see you.
Antoine Préveaux FRA 5579 (el Pécador)
www.europeclass.org