President’s 29th letter – 21/10/2022

Dear friends,

Find enclosed some quick updates before the planned meeting next week.

World Sailing Annual Meeting

As in previous WS physical meetings since 2017, we will set up a meeting with delegates from EUROSAF Members in Abu Dhabi. Date and time are Thursday 27 October at 1900, place in the meeting venue to be announced. There we will update your delegates about EUROSAF projects. Instruct them to save the date!

Executive Board meeting

In mid-September the Executive Board was able to meet again in Neusiedl-am-See, Austria, for its Autumn meeting, to finalize current projects and launch new ones.

Webinars

After four webinars held in spring, we resumed after the summer with the following ones:

• 20/10/2022: DigiSail Project by Grzegorz Botwina (POL), project chair.
• 07/12/2022: Meteorology by Alessandro Pezzoli (ITA).

A webinar in November is also planned, but not yet confirmed.

Express Sailing

Vice-president Alexandru Micu presented the Express Sailing project in Neusiedl-am-See (Austria) during the project meeting of the Erasmus+ Sport project “Sailing for better future.” The concept was received with great interest. Final details are being worked on to implement this public-attractive sailing format in different European places.

2022 EUROSAF Events

All EUROSAF Events have now taken place:

• EUROSAF Mixed Offshore European Championship: sailed from La Maddalena, in Sardinia, to Genoa (Italy) from 10 to 15 May and won by Cecilia Zorzi, winner of last year’s edition, and Giovanni Di Monaco (ITA), followed by Pietro D’Alì and Lucille Frascari (ITA), and, closing the podium, Elena and Carlos Manera (ESP), closely followed by Barbara Karpinska and Vladimir Kulinichenko (POL/UKR).
• EUROSAF 2.4mR European Championship: sailed in Saint-Pierre Quiberon (France) from 15 to 20 May and won by Megan Pascoe (GBR), with Damien Seguin (FRA) taking second place and Heiko Kröger (GER) third.
• EUROSAF Match Racing, Open European Championship: successfully organized in Ravenna (Italy) from 23 to 26 June, with Eric Monnin (SUI) taking gold, followed by Aurélien Pierroz (FRA) and Jeppe Borch (DEN).
• EUROSAF Junior Pirat European Championship: sailed in Csopak, on Lake Balaton (Hungary) from 21 to 25 July; Fynn Ausborm and Henrik Junge (GER) won the gold medal, followed on the podium by Franz Erpenbeck and Charlotte Meyer (GER), also the best mixed team.
• EUROSAF First 18 SE Open European Championship: sailed in Portorož (Slovenia) from 23 to 27 August and won by Vid Jeranko and Karlo Hmeljak, who dominated the top of the fleet at almost every try, with Dejan Presen and Dénes Szilágyi in second place (Blue Sardina II) and Tit Plevnik and Andraž Mihelin in third.
• EUROSAF Bénéteau First 27 SE & Seascape27 European Single-handed Championship: sailed from 14 to 18 September in Svendborg, Denmark, as part of the Silverrudder race and won by Milan Kolaček (CZE). 
• EUROSAF Match Racing, Women’s European Championship: fought in Corfu (Greece) from 12 to 16 October and won by Pauline Courtois – Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team (FRA), followed by Renee Groeneveld – Dutch Match Racing Team (NED) and Margot Vennin – Matchmoiselles (FRA).
• EUROSAF L30 European Championship: sailed in San Remo (Italy) from 13 to 16 October, it was won (again) by Attila Bakonyi (HUN) on “Tranquilo”, followed by Peter Tenke (HUN) on “Present Perfect”, and by Oleksandr Kalistratov (UKR).

Additionally, the following Cups took place under EUROSAF auspices:

• EUROSAF 420 Cup.
• EUROSAF Formula Kite Spain Series.
• EUROSAF Inclusive Cup, sailed in 2.4mR boats.

2023 EUROSAF Events

Bids received for EUROSAF Events in 2023 are the following (all places and dates TBC):

• EUROSAF Match Racing, Youth European Championship: Nantes, France, from 28 April to 1 May;
• EUROSAF Match Racing, Open European Championship: Corfu, Greece, from 10 to 14 May or from 4 to 8 October;
• EUROSAF Mixed Offshore European Championship: The Hague, the Netherlands, from 23 to 29 May;
• EUROSAF Match Racing, Women’s European Championship: Lago di Ledro, Italy, 15 to 18 June;
• EUROSAF Sailing Champions League: location and dates to be decided.

Only the multiclass EUROSAF Inclusive European Championship is still open for bids; a show of interest has been received. Contact the secretary general to host it!

2024 EUROSAF Events

Bids received for EUROSAF Events in 2024 are the following (all places and dates TBC):

• EUROSAF Match Racing, Open and Women’s European Championships: Ravenna, Italy, in June.

You can bid for the following 2024 EUROSAF Events:

• EUROSAF Match Racing, Youth European Championship
• EUROSAF Mixed Offshore European Championship
• EUROSAF Inclusive European Championship (multiclass)
• EUROSAF Sailing Champions League

Contact the secretary general to host any of them and forward this information to clubs and organizers within your Federation.

I look forward to meeting all European delegates in Abu Dhabi next week. 

Best regards,

Josep M. PLA

President