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European Championship 2003

Warnemünde, Germany

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Pictures are in the Pictures gallery.

08 - 13 July

This Europeans was sailed from wednesday to sunday, as is was part of the Warnemünde Week.
Except one day, the Regatta was dominated by mid to strong winds and nice waves.

Wind, Waves, (Women) : WARNEMÜNDE!
Or the whole truth about the EC 2003...

by Bart Bomans

The first major championship for the OK class ‘new style’ saw the further carbonisation of the OK fleet: After Haltern and Madine, where carbonmast sailors had felt a bit guilty for bringing a new mast now about 50% of the fleet were sporting magic black sticks from all different builders.

Thomas (the President) had recovered from a poor result at Kiel Week to convincingly win Warnemunde Woche with his newly acquired WB sail. At least 6 months of hard work for developing and testing had gone into the hands of the concurrents in only 1 week!!

But let’s start with the beginning: Tuesday: Measurement!
51 boats were measured and declared as being OK-dinghies (sometimes after some work) in only one day! Cool. Most attention went to the new masts of course, although glueing a pencil on the top of a sail to turn it into an OK sail was also fun (thanks Charlie!)

Wednesday & race 1:
A steady force 4 was waiting us on course Alpha. Wind & waves for powersailors! The new British secret weapon – Jim Hunt - seemed to work well in these conditions, showing very agressive & good upwind speed to take the gun in his first international race. Promising for GBR & frightening for the rest of us.

Thursday & races 2-3:
Force 4-5 on course Bravo this time, where there seemed to be a little less tide but even bigger waves. For me this was just ‘one of those days’. Finally getting over the initial nerves and scoring 2 bullets, just ahead of the great Dane.

Friday & race 4:
Strange day of racing. In an ever decreasing wind only 13 boats made the cruel time limit set by featherweight Juliane Hofmann. Even 5 of the final top 10 were made to blush. Some others (Jim, Neil & me) showed a lack of card reading ability when they wrongly rounded the wing mark of the adjacent course Charlie. Probably Juliane’s sudden performance jump had something to do with the Kiwi ‘input’ she had received before

Saturday & races 5-6:
Why are the 2 race-days always the windiest? When Jan-Dietmar shows up at the front at the first mark one does not need to say more Although the force 5-6 + huge waves did even wear him out during the 2nd race of the day. Where sailors of all other classes had an early night after such intense efforts – some OK sailors got challenged to demonstrate their huge physical abilities and show off their impressive bodies in the basement of Hotel Neptun. This was where the third characteristic of Warnemunde was put to the forefront (+49177287... – wow; I didn’t know one could have piercings on that spot as well ).

Sunday & race 7:
We woke up to be confronted once again by the same monotonous weather pattern: Northwesterly winds, sunshine and blue skies. First place was decided already, but 3 boats (Jim, Jørgen and Thomas) were going to fight it out for 2nd and 3rd. After a very intense race where just like the days before downwind speed showed to be desicive Thomas got the silver medal and Jørgen the bronze. Jim had to settle for fourth, but has unmistakably made his intentions clear for next years Worlds in Parkstone – GBR.