FROM FRANCE 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. |
FROM RUSSIA
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FROM ITALY The athletics, technical and training qualities of the Europe are unquestionable, however we are astonished of the so little co-operation shown by the NA’s assumed as favourable. It has not been sufficient to bet on the exceptional quality of our dinghy. As usual, in such a case, politics prevailed over the evidence of the matter and has been conclusive over the selection and votes. In Italy, we have not yet quantify the Europe’s helmsmen exodus towards the Laser or other classes. We will know about it at the end of the season when it will be possible to check it and to take the corresponding necessary steps, mostly in favour of the youngest, towards whom it is advisable to draw all our attention, as now we are not kept on to the external and internal commitments of the Olympic area. Shortly will start the 2005 sailing season and the qualification regattas. The first one will be held in Napoli end of February, the others will take place until May to complete the six scheduled regattas. These regattas will include various training meetings with as well foreign coaches. These trainings will have to be serious enough to obtain results to be able to hold the youngest attention demonstrating the validity and importance of the class for their formation. In such a context the ISAF Youth World Regattas will be appropriate as were the IYRU regattas in the past.
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FROM AUSTRALIA |
FROM DENMARK At the moment we are planning all the events for 2005 – our 4 qualifying races – the national championship – our courses for newcomers and skilled sailors and a lot of other events – also our cooperation with the judges in Denmark will be further exploited, in order to get more knowledge of the racing rules out to all the sailors and in order to get the sailing inside rule 42 and still obtaining maximum speed. 2005 will be a great Europe year ! By the way, we will be more than happy to welcome sailors from all nations at our races, if you are interested see the calendar at our website www.europeclass.dk and don’t hesitate to contact us. |
COMPETITION GOES ON
Some changes about the number of entries per Nation have been decided for 2005. This year there will be much more entries per Nation. Please contact your National Class Association to know more about your National Quota this year, but I can advance that the Youth Event will allow up to 3 more entries per Nation and that the Worlds in China has NO quota at all. Everybody can participate there. Just get the approval from your National Class Association or Federation and you are in ! We hope to see you all soon. Have a great sailing. Paul Depoorter IECU VP Racing |
TAKE NOTE HELSINKI – 2005 EUROPEANS RIZHAO – CHINA – 2005 WORLDS YOUTH EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP - TOENSBERG - NORWAY -
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Race report from Japan
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