Racing has begun at the 2009 Formula Windsurfing World Championships in Santa Pola, Spain. The 6-day event features the World’s best Formula sailors battling it out for the title. Sean arrived early in Santa Pola on Tuesday for a week of tuning and sailing, preparing for the event. Read the daily reports below, see the photos and stay tuned for the video as well as following Sean’s race-updates via Twitter.

• Race Updates from Sean on Twitter
• Official Event Website
• FormulaWindsurfing.org

Day 1:

In three races today (2 counting and one abandoned) I managed to rig all three of my sails and use all three fins; amazing!

The day started as did everyday this week with the wind a very light westerly of 5 knots in the morning then dropping out around lunchtime before swinging to the south and picking up to 10 knots very quickly. The first race we were out on 12m’s with the big fins however after a general recall in which 20 guys sailed the entire first lap we had a delay of 20 mins or so until we could restart the first race. By this time the wind had picked up and for me it was a bit of a handful with the 12m and 76 fin combo. I had an average start and was deep in the pack going round the first mark however I elected to go to the left on the second lap which the majority of the front runners didn’t do and managed to pick up 10 or so places on the second lap.

Ross Williams (GBR-83) passed me on the final downwind; I haven’t seen the results but either I was doing quite well or he was doing quite sh*te.

The wind continued to pick up and I changed down to the 11m and 73 fin and this race I got squished on the start underneath Gonzalo leaving me deep in the pack off the line. The startline is rediculously too small for the one fleet of 80 guys so the starting tactics for the majority is to just sit on the line stopped (as there is not enough room to run down the line) then start pumping with 5 seconds to go; just like an RSX race … haha.

I tacked away early in this race and got a good lift on port across to the layline to be in a decent position around the first mark. I was following Adri Keet (NED-34) downwind before he crashed in to a French sailor at the gybe in to the bottom mark and I was able to make a few places going round the mark. We had a gate for the bottom and with everyone arriving on different tacks you had to keep your eyes open to avoid hitting someone. Suffice to say, I doubt anyone (my included) noticed the boat 10m downwind of the marks holding the ‘C’ flag (course change) and luckily most of the fleet had realised the top mark had been moved 400m to the right and changed to a red mark.

I arrived at the top mark in a group with Hubert Mokrzycki (POL-25) and Lukasz (POL-320) and although they were a little faster on the downwind, Lukasz had a big crash on the run to the finish so I was able to finish just behind Hubert. I was later to discover that Hubert was OCS in this race and BFD the race before; unlucky.

A big storm arrived around this point (see the photos!) and after a big delay of 45 mins or so and myself given time to rig the 9.9m we were sent back out. Unfortunately for me the wind started to die as the storm and lightning arrived and with only 1 boom I wasn’t able to have my 11m rigged at the same time ready to go. So the countdown started and the wind dropped to around 12 knots which was a punishment on the 9.9m. I ended up getting a great start just to windward of Steve Allen (AUS-0) however as only about 15 people got off the line planing. I didn’t have particularly good angle because I was struggling to keep on the plane with the small sail but I held in under Steve for most of the run before the boats chased us down with the abandonment flag (just as I dropped off the plane!) and we started to head back to the beach to get in before the rain.

The forecast for tomorrow is the same again, so it looks like there’ll be a LOT of rigging going on this week!

Ps. Check out some photos below of the new 2010 Starboard LWR and HWR formula boards as well as the new 2010 Exocet Warp formula board developed by Gonzalo.

UPDATE. We haven’t been able to get on the internet connection here at the race site the past 2 days, so I’m stopping doing the daily reports. Sorry guys! Keep watching FormulaWindsurfing.org for more info…

Sean took 1st place overall at the Norwegian FW Championships in Larvik, Norway this weekend. A strong fleet of 30 of the top Norwegian formula sailors completed the 10 blistering races in winds exceeding 30-35 knots. Read a short report from Sean about the event below as well as results on Norwegian boardsailing website.

• Overall Results
• Event Video (by Sean)
• Another Photo Gallery

This weekend we had the Norwegian FW Championships in Larvik, Norway; my first trip to this country. After some tough conditions racing at the Nordic Championships in Denmark (where many Norwegians competed) last weekend, we took a few days to relax and do some sightseeing, catching up with some friends in Moss, Drøbak and Oslo as well as visiting Gotheberg, Sweden on the drive up to Norway.

On Friday afternoon we arrived in Larvik to meet up with our Norwegian friends and get out on the water after a day wandering around and getting lost in Oslo (ps, can now “officially” confirm this is THE most expensive city in the World!). We were greeted with rain, mist and 25 knots of breeze with temperatures around 15 degrees, which to me is pretty much the 3rd IceAge so we decided we’d take a break from sailing and wait till the sun came out the next day! (we are pussies, granted).

On Saturday morning, 30 Norwegians, myself and James Briggs (GBR-848) signed up to race with the impending forecast for winds to be 25-35 knots all weekend!
The race committee decided to err on the side of safety this weekend as on the open ocean there were 3m swells breaking in to sheer cliff-faces which would’ve meant if you fell off close to the wall you would certainly die a horrific death, so they set the course on the inside of the fjord. A short course of about 600m upwind with the fjord only being around 250m wide which meant lots of tacks and gybes to get upwind and downwind between the steep cliffs of the fjord – exciting racing!

The plan was to do 6 races today (the races were short, around 10-12 mins for the leaders) in winds of 28-35 knots! I won the first two races closely followed by the strong Norwegian fleet. In Race 3 I opted to try out a more ‘medium wind’ fin which turned out to be a disaster as the winds cranked to a solid 30-35 knots this race and I put it in the drink so many times despite somehow coming back to 2nd. In Race 4 I stuck with that fin and managed to break not one, but two footstraps off after a horrendous crash and decided to retire from the race … haha.

New footstraps and back to my trusty ‘super high wind’ 70cm VMG and we were back on the course after a delay of 30 mins while the wind was well over 18 m/s (36 knots!). I managed to win these one of these races but had 3 crashes in the final race to get a 3rd behind the top Norwegians who only managed to crash twice!
After 6 races I was in the lead by 2 points with plenty of wind forecasted for Sunday also. We had a fantastic BBQ grill with all the meats in the well furnished Larvik clubhouse and had an opportunity to meet most of the Norwegian sailors.

Included in the 30 or so in the fleet were many younger sailors, boys and girls, most of which sailing the Formula Experience class (which we don’t have back in AUS). What I was super impressed with is the fact that all of these kids got out there and started every single race, even with winds well over 30 knots and a difficult course to sail; some of the girls were as young as 16 – full commitment! I’ve seen many older guys sit out races in much less winds … hehe.

Sunday morning the winds dropped down to a more manageable 25 knots. We raced again with most of the Top 5 on 10m sails and the rest on anything from 7.2 – 8.5m! After a race was abandoned when the
wind dropped at the bottom mark we nailed 2 races which I won which included 3 laps of the course; giving everyone more opportunity to make up some places (when the people in front were crashing, usually!). A short lunchbreak and we were back out for 2 more races to end the event.

I put it in the drink once again in this race and allowed NOR-0 to shoot past me but got my sh*t together in the final race to win and take the overall event.
All in all, the event was run very smoothly with the race committee listening to the suggestions of the sailors and making quick adjustments to the course where necessary. With insanely strong winds, racing on an narrow fjord with sheer rock cliffs on either side and difficult shifty winds between the islands, I think it would’ve been VERY difficult to organise any races, let alone nailing 10 races in 2 day! Congratulations Norway.

Always being a fan of coming to smaller events and seeing new countries, meeting new people, rather than just doing the Pro Tour events, I really enjoyed my short stay in Norway and the racing we did with such an enthusiastic, positive National fleet. Thanks once again to the guys involved with organising the event and to Svein Rudihaugen for looking after us and the beers ;)
I hope I can make it back to Norway again sometime and see more of this beautiful country.

Racing starts today at the 2009 Nordic Windsurfing Championships in Skive, Denmark. Sean will be competing to defend his 2nd Place last year behind the Danish champion Jesper Vesterstrøm (DEN-111) amongst other great Nordic sailors. Enjoy some daily reports from Sean below.

Day 0 (Training):

We (myself and Guernsey sailor James Briggs) arrived in Denmark early on Thursday morning. The previous evening we’d help a friend in Holland move furniture in a new house, unpacked and repacked two vans full of gear, caught up with another friend in Holland for coffee around midnight then drove full power to Denmark after also picking up my sail from the sailmaker which was an extra 1.5 hours drive out of the way … so by the time we’d arrived in Denmark we were pretty wrecked!

On Thursday afternoon, after checking in at our accomodation for the weekend (staying at Christian Bo Justesen [DEN-26] and his family’s place – who happen to also be the event organisers) we headed down to the club to catch up with the other sailors and do the Thursday night twilight race with the local Danish sailors. This particular race was 4 laps of a fairly short course with very gusty strong winds around 20-24 knots at times. Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111) won this race by a good margin with myself in a clear second.

Back at home we relaxed with a cool Danish beer (possibly the only ‘cold’ beer I’ve ever had in Europe; thanks Denmark!) and had an early night ready for racing the next day.

Day 1 (Racing):

We started racing around 12pm with the plan to do 4 races and possibly more if the conditions allowed. Yesterday we’d sailed in easterly winds which was unnatural for this venue but today we were back racing in the typical W-SW offshore breezes; which on a ‘lake’ venue are typically offshore, shifty and gusty (I can confirm this!).

There were plenty of the big names here; all the top Danish sailors as well as psuedo Aussie Jesper Orth (AUS-10), Brett Morris (AUS-8) and myself rep’ing Australia, a host of Norwegian, Swedish and even Finlandian sailors and James all the way from Guernsey (GoogleMap it if you don’t believe that it is a country!).

Race 1 started as all lightwind shifty races do, with 50% of the fleet unable to plane off the line. I took a great start at the pin end with Jesper and Kasper Larson (DEN-11) heading out to the left. Jesper tacked very early and I decided to go 300m further than the layline to make sure I could cover if the wind went light. It did, and this maneourve paid off as I was able to bear away in the lightspots with my height above the layline and rounded the mark a good 100m clear of second. With the shifty winds the rest of the fleet seemed to fall further behind and I thought this race was in the bag for me until I saw the abandonement flag shortly after rounding the top mark on the second lap – damn!

The re-run of Race 1 was a complete disaster for me as I went left again with Kasper and couldn’t stay on the plane. Kasper finished this race in first somehow but the rest of the fleet went right to stay in the wind…everyone else who went left was back with me … in about 30th!

With the offshore wind we were a good 2km downwind of the beach so with no opportunity to go home for a drink we started another race. This time I started on port to head right as the wind had locked more in to the West and the right side was working well. I had a lousy start and sat underneath most of the port starters but again went 200m over the layline to allow for the shifts. Again this worked well and I was back to 3rd at the top mark behind the young Danish Sebastian (DEN-24) and one of the Norwegian sailors who was going very fast upwind. I went further on the downwind layline (strangely enough, overshooting laylines pays off on days like these!) and was able to pass these guys to have a clear 100m margin at the bottom mark. I held on to this lead most of the second leg despite heading right on one of the biggest LOOSERS I have ever sailed. I was basically heading the same angle as the downwind leg, but the rest of the fleet was following me so I decided to stick with it to the corner. After tacking the wind went really whack! I fell off the plane another 2 times in the run to the mark and everybody started tacking in different places … Somehow in the traffic I dropped back to 5th and was unable to pass anyone on the downwind. Sebastian won this race ahead of the Norwegian …

Race 3 started after a 10 minute break (definitely not enough time for a drink!) on the beach with the course moved another 1km downwind. With the wind lightening most of the fleet were unable to make the start ontime! I arrived on the line with 45 secs to go and tacked on to port to get a terrible start sitting right underneath Jesper and Brian Roegild. Jesper and Brian were able to climb away from me with their clear air and I got a little pinned having no ability to tack away as we were heading to the favoured side. I was 7th by the top mark and finished the race in 7th. The wind was less shifty this race so there wasn’t as much opportunity for passing. Brian was leading until the final downwind when he let Jesper pass him ….

That was it for the day … tonight we have a dinner at the club then more racing tomorrow.

Day 2 (The Bullet):

The forecast was much better today with 8-12 knots predicted as well as a possible 30 knot front with rain and lightning arriving at some point after lunch. The course was moved a long way up to the north of the fjord, probably about 4km downwind of the beach which meant there was no possibility of changing equipment between the races. That being said we all rigged our 12′s, big fins and full lightwind setups and headed down to the startline around 12pm for the first start. After two attempts at starting the first race which were abandoned with the wind becoming very light and shifty, we took a 10 minute break to relay the line before the wind picked up to 18 knots for the start of Race 1 for the day.

To be honest, I would’ve loved to have not had my mast-track at the back, boom at the top of the pocket, no-outhaul on and no chicken-strap, as with a 76cm cutdown fin with a 12m rigged for lightwind it made for some pretty interesting racing!

Jesper took the first bullet for the day, with Sebastian (DEN-24) taking the next race. In Race 3 for the day I took it upon myself to finally get my sh*t together and take a bullet! I had a lousy start on starboard pinned between Nikkolai (DEN-4) and Sebastian and even hit the shore with my fin going to close to the beach to tack, however that extra 50m I sailed kept me in the strong winds a little longer to recover to 4th around the top mark behind the top Danish guys. I was still in 4th on the bottom mark following Kasper Larson (DEN-11) back towards the shore as the other 2 guys went out to middle. Kasper tacked early but I sailed once again until my fin grinded the shore then got an amazing lift because of my extra distance out to the left of the course. I rounded the top mark about 100m clear in 1st with only the downwind to go …

…the wind went SUPER light on the downwind but the guys behind me got a massive gust taking them 30 degrees lower than me. I was far enough ahead to possibly gybe before they got to my line to hopefully beat them by the distance it takes someone to gybe! I pumped the entire way downwind till my hands nearly started bleeding but I held on to take the bullet!!

In the final race of the day I got another good start and picked a good layline to the top mark with Sebastian ini front of me and we were likely to round the mark clearly ahead however the wind went light 100m from the mark and I came off the plane but flyweight Sebastian managed to stay on and hold 4th around the mark as Jesper and the rest of the guys who went to the right side of the course came around in the top spots. I was 7th at the top mark and basically stayed in that place for the entirety of the race, although I did manage to pass old Brian Roegild on the downwind to pickup a spot ;-)

Day 3 (The Nothing):

The forecast today was for ZERO wind and in a rare (but awesome) move the race committee decided to pull the plug at 11am, run the prizegiving at 12pm while everyone was still here and let everyone get the earlier ferries home in the afternoon back to their Nordic homes … A great BBQ was put on by the Skive Sejling Klub after the prizegiving ceremony also.

I finished 7th overall in a tough fleet which was very close on points in the Top 10. 5 different race winners in 7 races shows how close and competitive the racing was (or how fluky and shifty the conditions were!).

Final Results:

1. Jesper Vesterstrøm (DEN-111)
2. Kasper Juul Larsen (DEN-11)
3. Sebastian Kornum (DEN-24)
4. Nikolaj Kruppa (DEN-4)
5. Brian Røegild (DEN-173)
6. Robert Åberg (SWE-13)
7. Sean O’Brien (AUS-120)
8. Magne Frønsdal (NOR-4)
9. Per Boström (SWE-92)
10. Kurosh Kiani (DEN-13)

Racing has begun at the 2009 AllegroCup Windsurfing Championship in Łeba, Poland. This event, organised by Allegro.pl for the past five years is the premium event on the GP World Tour and one of three international championship events in Poland this year. Sean will be writing reports and posting exclusive videos from the event which you can check out below:

• www.AllegroCup.pl (Official Event Site)
• www.sieplywa.pl (Polish Windsurfing News)
• www.FormulaWindsurfing.org (FW Class Event Coverage)

Video Gallery:

Rather than write a long report about this event I thought it would be more interesting to some it up in a few sentences and then post some videos and pictures we’ve been making on the beach the past week. It had been a little difficult to get on the internet with a decent connection to upload the videos for the first few days in Łeba so my plans to write a daily report had been sidelined a little.

To some up the event, I think everyone would say that this was a typical AllegroCup this year as we were able to race in a large variety of conditions from light onshore winds and big swells, gusty offshore winds and flat water and the token 25 knot day with cold temperatures and breaking waves on the beach. A good opportunity to cover all three of your rigs in sand instead of just one. I’ve had a bit of a hit and miss event but apart from 2 races in Pobierowo last weekend this is the first time I have sailed my new Point-7 sails and also my new VMG fins and I have a new Gaastra board (!) so I’m happy with how my speed was out on the course without having much a chance to tune up; just need to get my head switched on for the racing a little more.

Steve Allen (AUS-0) once again won the event ahead of Pawel Hlavaty (POL-11) and Ross Williams (GBR-83) with Marta Hlavaty (POL-111) taking the women’s crown. Stay tuned tomorrow for a video of the final event party. Allegro over the years haven’t failed to put on an amazing party with bands and acts like “Shaggy”, “Boney-M”, “Stereo MC’s” and “Mattafix” joining the ranks of some of the bands to grace the AllegroCup stage.

Sean is currently racing at the Euro-Challenger FW Event in Pobierowo, Poland. A small seaside town on the Baltic sea, with great ocean racing and beautiful beaches. Check out the daily reports from Sean during the event with photos and video soon to come.

Day 1.

Not a lot to report here after the first day of racing in Pobierowo. After a long day at the beach and a few attempts to get a start away, the day finished without any races being completed. A decent sized fleet is competing with 64 competitors from all around the world (including 3 Australians this time!). All the usual suspects are here; Steve Allen (AUS-0), Wojtek Brzozowski (POL-10), Wilhelm Schurmann (BRA-999) and Poland’s champion Olympic RSX sailor Przemyslaw Miarczynski (POL-126).

After a long day on the beach the sailors headed home late in the arvo to find some accommodation and get ready for the opening ceremony on the beach at 8pm. I unfortunately missed the entire ceremony as we’d driven through the night from Italy (arriving at the beach only 1 hour before the first possible start!) so we hadn’t had a chance to find a place to stay; nor had any sleep in the past 2 days! Ended up only being able to find a hotel in the town 10km down the road from Pobierowo so by the time we got back to the beach, we’d missed the ceremony.

Day 2.

Day two kicked off in usual Polish fashion, with a bit of light rain and clouds before the sun popped out and the temperature kicked up about 15 degrees in a matter of minutes. The wind was light, but we were out on the course around 11am for the first starts. I took my new 11.8m Point-7 out with a VMG Blades 73; first time I’d used both but I was very happy with the feel of the new sails and fins on my Vapor board. The first start was a little tricky with most of the fleet lining up to start on port before a bit of lull 20 seconds from the gun, made it difficult for a lot of the port starters to cross the line. I got fairly buried in this mess and although I had some good downwind speed to catch up a few places, I spent most of the race outside of the Top 10, with Polanowski (POL-16) hot on my heels before he managed to pass me and a small group in front on the final run to the finish. Steve Allen took the bullet in R1 ahead of Wojtek and Pawel Hvalaty (POL-11) and Hubert Mokrzycki (POL-25).

As you can see in the photos below, Wojtek is sporting this rediculously oversized NP boom they he has modified himself. The width at the harness line must be close to 1m! haha. It allows his 12m sail to not even touch the boom when the outhaul is fully released, keeping the profile of the sail consistent in light winds. Wojtek took the bullet in R2 ahead of Steve and Przemyslaw. I had a good start but had some trouble with weed in the early parts of the race (I don’t remember weed at this beach last year, but there seems to be a bit of it around this time) and got in to quite a bit of trouble putting me back down the fleet.

After a lunchbreak with plenty of Polish food for the competitors we tried to start R3 early in the afternoon with the winds fading. I continued with the 11.8m but up’d on to my 76cm Blade however the race was abandoned after the first lap with Steve in a clear lead and Wojtek buried on the startline and back in the 20′s … lucky for him. I was in 6th with the front pack around the bottom mark with great speed on the 76cm fin; so a little disappointed this race got K.O’d.

Later in the afternoon we tried once more but the flailing winds prevented a restart of R3. The forecast for tomorrow is fairly nuclear so there should be a good chance to have 6 races for this event completed. Stay tuned …

Day 3.

Not a good start to the morning today. Late yesterday, in the small cramped rigging area we have access to, someone careless smashed a boom end through my board making a large hole in the centre of the underside. I raced all last year with a board with +2kg of water in it so I didn’t want to have this problem again, so thought it best to sit today out and get the board repaired properly so it is ready for Leba in a few days and I can be sure I won’t be sucking any water. I also haven’t even had time to take my 9.9m out of the bag so it doesn’t even have sail numbers!

Racing kicked off at 11.30am with the winds dropping back to 18-25 knots (+25 knots earlier in the morning) and a decent sized swell running creating a heavy shorebreak at the beach. Due to the rain I haven’t been watching all the racing but so far Steve has won R3 and R4 ahead of Wojtek and Paulo (BRA-3333) taking 2nd in R3; liking the stronger winds.

Check out some photos and stay tuned for a bit more news later today.

For some final preparations for the Formula World Championships in Portugal next week, Sean flew to Athens, Greece to compete in the Greek FW Championships. The event took place in Schinias Marathonas on the eastern side of Athens and the top Formula and RS:X sailors from Greece took part in the four-day regatta with wind conditions anything from light winds up to 35 knots! For a full report and video of the event use the links below:

• Greek Windsurfing Website
• Karavi Club

I was sitting watching the rain through the window at my home in the Netherlands last Monday when I get a call from my Aussie/Greek celebrity friend Jason Roditis (GRE-200) telling me that the Greek FW Championships are on this weekend and I should come down and see what it’s like in a country where it hardly ever rains. After a solid 5 days of rain in Holland I needed no further encouragement and I booked my tickets to Athens …

Greeted at the airport by Jason I only managed to get my sails to Greece as the lousy airline (I won’t publicly shame them) wouldn’t let me take my board and boom (although they did let me take a +50kg bag of sails and masts which was well over 3m long!). Just to drop a name, Jason is Greece’s dancing sensation being a judge on So You Think You Can Dance and will shortly be dancing as the Greek representative on the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest which he is somehow managing to fit in before flying the next morning back to Portugal to compete in the FW World Championships next Monday. It appears ‘dancing’ is going to be the next big thing in windsurfing as Steve Allen is about to do a similar thing in Poland as a contestant on Dancing With The Stars airing very shortly in Poland …

Thursday morning we arrived at the Karavi Club at Schinias Marathonas; one of the most perfect beaches I’ve seen in Europe for Formula sailing and only a short drive from the centre of Athens on the eastern coast of the Greek mainland. The wind was already howling and the forecast of 25 knots for the day seemed pretty accurate. A small but enthusiastic fleet turned up to contest the event; a few more notables hadn’t returned from the ISA Speed World Cup on Karpathos as yet.

We rigged 10m’s and I had to quickly learn how to tune the Starboard F162 as my Vapor board was still sitting in my van back in Brussels where I’d flown from. Luckily I’d brought only one fin with me and that happened to be the worst fin possible for the 162 :-/ We did 4 races of the day in windy conditions. I took 3 bullets and a 2nd. The second place came from me doing a muppet mistake in the third race. That muppet mistake was; realising I’d been doing the same muppet mistake in ALL of the first three races – sailing around the downwind mark before the finish instead of straight to the line. Luckily I was ahead enough in the first races not to worry about this but Akis Chrisohou (GRE-22) punished me to the line seeing I had taken the extra distance in Race 3.

On Friday morning we were blesssed with a lighter wind day. I rigged the 12m for all three races we completed and had some tussles with the Greek sailors Yiannis Papaspyrou (GRE-17) and Zois Theocharis (GRE-100) who managed to take a bullet each from me with me taking the win in Race 3. By late afternoon the wind had died and I was able to spend the afternoon talking with most of the sailors about fins and tuning and all things relating to how to build up a good formula racing series in Greece. Greece have recently adopted the ‘Formula Plus’ category that we have been promoting in Australia for some time. Its nothing new, just a way to get the newer Formula sailors to do one lap instead of two whilst still starting with the main fleet as well as a system on how to introduce these new guys in to the sport and build up their confidence and enthusiasm to work on being able to finish two laps of the course. Its been really successful in growing formula in Australia and it was great to see it is also working in Greece as well. I’d love to see it spread further through Europe – this class is not just for the elite!

In the evening we went to dinner with the Greek FW Association Committee as well as some other sailors. I really love the way the Greeks eat and value the importance of sitting down together and sharing a meal with friends and family; we don’t do this as much back home in Australia with our busy lifestyles. The Greeks love their food, which worked out pretty well, because I love food too and after a few hours of eating and talking about the formula scene in Greece and how they could work on coordinating bigger and better events and attracting more Europeans, we retired for the night; leaving Jason and I an opportunity to hit the Athens nightlife – wow, is all I can say about that. Wow.

Saturday was a lighter wind day again and we only managed to get one race away for the day despite having a few attempts at this start. I tried out some new Hurricane fins from Jason which were a little better than what I had previously been using in the F162 and won this race by a clear margin. On Sunday morning, the final day, we had very strong winds coming from the North which was completely offshore at this location. It was still possible to sail, but very shifty and gusty in the corners close to the beach which made it difficult to set a fair course. On the outside, farther out to sea there were gusts up to and over 35 knots which meant we couldn’t just set a course out to sea to get away from the shifty conditions in close to the shore… so we waited… and waited…

By around 4.30pm we had to pull the plug for the day with no racing as the wind conditions didn’t change over the day. It was possible to sail in these conditions, and many guys went out to try and force a final race to start but with the offshore winds any rescues would have been very difficult and for safety reasons, wisely, the racecrew kept us on the beach.

For the prizegiving, a decent amount of trophies were dished out over a few beers in front of the Karavi Club. I won the overall event but the Greek Championship for this year went to Zois Theocharis (GRE-100). After a decent spraying of champagne over everyone at the presentation the Greeks retired home and I had another great dinner out with Jason and Antonis Nikolopoulos (GRE-202) friends back at the sailing club restaurant closer to the centre of town.

This was my first time in Greece and I must say this place has everything going for it and I hadn’t even made it out to some of the islands which apparently have even better sailing conditions. I think, at least for me, the attraction of living in a “city” weighs more over the ‘island lifestyle’ (I grew up in a big city in Australia) and so I think you’ll see me coming back to the Greek mainland to train rather than out to Rhodes or Paros… The Greek’s welcoming and passionate demeaner made this trip really special and one I won’t forget for a long time. Perfect training conditions and a perfect warmup for the Formula Worlds next week. See you guys in Greece in 2009 !!

OVERALL RESULTS:

1. Sean O’Brien (AUS-120)
2. Zois Theocharis (GRE-100) – Greek Champion
3. Akis Chrisohou (GRE-22)
4. Vassilis Solidakis (GRE-19)

Sean finishes 2nd overall behind Jesper Vesterstrøm (DEN-111) and ahead of Nikolaj Kruppa (DEN-4) in the 2008 Nordic Championships. The event took place over three days in Nyborg, Denmark with 6 races taking place in 8-14 knot winds. Read a report about the event from Sean as well as a short video and the results on FW.org.

• Event Report on Riders.dk
• Official Event Gallery

After Sweden’s effort last year the Nordic Championships returned to Denmark again in 2008. Specifically, Nyborg, which is a smaller town at one end of the Great Belt Bridge (Storebæltsforbindelsen in Danish). A decent sized fleet of +50 guys arrived for the event from all parts of Scandinavia as well as randoms from Italy and even Australia. The forecast for the weekend was pretty light but most of us were optimistic for some good racing to happen this weekend and we were to be treated…

The racing course was straight out in front of the clubhouse with the bridge in the background and only a few minutes walk from the centre of town in Nyborg. On Friday we were teased most of the day with the wind anywhere from 3 knots up to 12. The Danish race crew tried for 2 hours or so to get a start away but with the wind up and down and shifting a fun race was held – which Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111) won by a streak as most of the rest of us (me included) had already headed back to the beach to save our energy. That was all the action we got on Friday and after a great dinner put on at the club we were back off to the hotel to get rested for the first races on Saturday.

The wind was in relatively early on Saturday and we were able to get races away by midday in perfect 10-12 knots with great sunshine and relatively warm water (by European standards). Race 1 kicked off with a few over-ealy’s from Jesper and Andrea Cucchi (ITA-1) amongst others which allowed me to take the bullet after a hard fought race in the winds around 8 knots.

The course was a windward/leeuward with a short reach mark after the top mark and in the first two races the course was set relatively short taking the leaders only 12-15 minutes to finish each race. The line was considerably pin-end biased and it suprised me that most of the top guys weren’t starting too far down the line as I hit the pin on every start all weekend and had great starts each time in clear wind.

Race 2 and 3 was much of a repeat of the first with the winds increasing to a perfect 12 knots and most of the fleet still on the 12m’s and cutdown fins. I was around the top mark in 2nd each time behind the unstoppable Vesterstrom however Andrea Cucchi with his superior boardspeed managed to pass me late on the second lap each race and I had to settle for 3rd in these two races – edging out Nikolaj Kruppa (DEN-4), Kasper Larson (DEN-288) and Brian Roegild (DEN-173) who were battling it out for the minor places but still hot on my heels.

The final race on Saturday had the course lengthened considerably and the top guys took 25 minutes or so to finish the race. I really enjoy these long courses as it gives everyone an opportunity to get back in the race even if you had a bad start. Brian and Andrea got ahead of me early out of the start and I had to follow them the entire way around the course in their dirty air as it was difficult to go too early on your laylines with such a long course. I managed to finish 4th in this race behind Brian but quite a long way behind Vesterstrom who had cleared out on us this race.

On Sunday, the final day of racing I was sitting in 2nd overall just 2 points ahead of Andrea Cucchi and needed to have some more good results to keep myself on the podium and ahead of the Italian.
The wind was very light up until nearly 1.30pm and it looked as though we may not even get another race in (which didn’t entirely bother me as I was happy with my position at this point). By 2pm however the wind had finally kicked in and we were back out on the course with the 12m’s up for some more perfect 10-12 knot races. The last possible start was at 3.30pm (to allow the Norwegians enough time to make their ferry home that afternoon) so we knew at this point we were only going to get 1 maybe 2 races in today to finish the event.

The long course was set again and the startline moved a little to make it more favourable at the boat this time. I had a great start ahead of Andrea and Kurosh Kiani (DEN-13) before getting informed it was a general recall after I’d nearly sailed all the way to the port layline. A few minutes later we restarted and I tried to start a little further down the line to be below Andrea who was pointing quite high and dodging a few of the guys like Kasper Larson and Magne Fronsdal (NOR-4) who were starting on port. I didn’t do as well out of this start as the guys closer to the boat and was in 6th at the top mark hot on the heels of a few of the Danish guys and Andrea – with Jesper clear out in front again. I had a great downwind and passed a few guys to be in 4th at the bottom mark however I had no speed to catch up with Brian, Andrea and Jesper and had to settle for another 4th in this race.

The final race of the day started in much the same fashion and with the chop picking up in the middle of the course (as the tide was travelling the opposite way to the wind) it made it a little more bumpy in this race with the big rigs. I finished 5th in this race but knew it was enough to hold my 2nd overall as Andrea had an extra DNF to count after breaking his harness line in the previous race.

The presentation got away on time around 4pm-ish and the sailors were presented with prizes and medals for their efforts. This was the first time I’ve raced in Denmark and really enjoyed the conditions, the courses and the racing itself as the Danish fleet is one to be reckoned with on the formula circuit.

I used the 12m Gaastra Vapor and Vapor board all event with my VMG Blades 70 fin (which we actually designed for medium/strong winds, not so much lightwinds) and was very happy with my speed all weekend. In the past there’s been a few Nordic sailors floating around in Australia and attending our events so I thought it was nice to repay the favour and come up to the Nordics to race. The event was very smoothly organised and conditions were perfect for racing. I’m hoping to be able to come up to this event again as it was a nice warmup for the FW Worlds in Portugal in 2 weeks.

The 2008 Formula Windsurfing European Championships kicked off today in the sunny seaside town of Leba, in Poland. 129 male competitors; the biggest fleet in many years have all registered to begin the first races at 11am on Wednesday morning. Read the daily reports and videos from Sean on the links below to keep up to date from the beach:

• Official News on FormulaWindsurfing.org
• AllegroCup.pl Official Event Website

DAY 0 / DAY 1:

Ok, so 129 men have registered for this year’s European FW Championships in Leba, Poland. We all know Leba pretty well, having raced here a number of years and most of us having competed at the 2004 FW World Championships in Leba also. The long stretch of white sandy beach; the scorching hot temperatures (by European standards); the plethora of smoking hot Polish girls on the beach; and the general 2-3 days of the event with ABSOLUTELY NO WIND!!

Registration day was fairly quiet apart from the news that Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (ARG-3) is now riding Exocet – having tested out the board at the Pobierowo event last week and making the switch official at this event. Check the video above for a few comments from Gonzo about the board and its performance.

We had a nice 12-14 knot NE breeze for most of the day on Tuesday so most of us used the opportunity to do some final testing of fins and settings and get used to the conditions we will be sailing in for the rest of the week.

It was nice to stretch the legs yesterday as today we spent the ENTIRE day at the beach with the wind teasing us around 4-5 knots until the race crew finally pulled the plug at 6pm. Despite the multitude of entertainment options on the beach provided by the event sponsors Allegro.pl (including aerobix and dance classes on the stage, volleyball, dj’s, free computers with internet, a restaurant/relaxation room for the sailors etc) it was a fairly boring day on the beach with only one crazy Danish sailor deciding to go out on the water and see if he could plane; about 3 seconds was the most we saw him on the rail…

All the usual guns are registered and ready to race: Allen, Vesterstrom, Williams, Dagan, Cucchi, Menegatti, Costa Hoevel, Brzozowski, Schurmann etc etc. Tomorrow the forecast is even worse so it might even be Thursday before we see who is on the pace. The field has been split in to two fleets with the large entry numbers so it will be difficult sailing to keep on top of the rankings with the double take of points for each race…

Stay tuned tomorrow for (hopefully) some actual windsurfing news.

DAY 2:

Today we arrived at the beach to another glassy ocean day with almost 0 breeeze. By 10am a light NE’erly of 4-5 knots began to tease us and it looked like it was going to be a repeat of yesterday. This gave a few of the sailors enough time to play one of the (I think I counted roughly 6 million in Leba alone) Air-Hockey tables that litter this city. I’m not sure why air-hockey is so popular in this part of the world but the game absolutely RULES so Markus and I decided it appropriate to play a game for the title of Champion of the Universe (ps. it was a tie – 11 all, however Markus scored a late point after the buzzer which was later discounted).

At around 1.30pm the wind finally kicked and a fairly light but consistent 8-10 knots hit the course and the AP’s were dropped. We are racing in Split Fleets which again has caused a lot of discussion occuring on the beach between the sailors and Ceri Williams as many of the top guys believe split fleets don’t provide fair racing. Unfortunately, 130 guys don’t get off a startline very successfully in <19 knots so there appears to be no other solution than to race in splits. The other drama is that the fleets are split based on the FW World Rankings which don’t always reflect the order of performance (ie, guys like Antoine only compete in one event per year, so he’s deep in the list despite being World Champion). I personally can’t see any other way we could split them as the rankings is by far the fairest however today we had an example where most of us believed the Blue Fleet was more difficult than the Yellow… but there’s not much we can do about that.

Race 1 and 2 kicked off in around 10-12 knots with the majority of the fleet on 12m’s (bar Wojtek who rigged his trusty 10.7m I believe). The startline was insanely boat favoured with the course better on the right side following the beach (which would’ve been better to start on port if you could somehow cross the line) so the usual routine was to sail out to the ocean and tack across to the layline on port and then to follow the beach on the second leg. We were running inner/outer loops with the split fleets and the courses were a good 15-16 mins for the top guys which is a touch longer than usual for Poland (which I appreciated!). On the pace in the first race was Steve Allen (AUS-0) who took the bullet in the blue fleet (which I was in) however he faultered in the following races and allowed Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN-111) to nail two bullets.

I didn’t have the best of days personally as I had difficulty finding places on the line that weren’t behind guys like JV and Steve who were pointing stupidly high. In the second race I stripped the thread in my baseplate and so had to sail the entire course with the base sliding up and down the track
everytime I went over a wave which was pretty darn slow!! :(

Anyhow, we had a difficult fleet with plenty of guys going fast so I sat around the 12-14 mark most of the day which I wasn’t too happy with. The next few days are going to be windier and I feel I have good speed on the 11m with my new VMG Blades so hopefully I can pick up the pace a bit.

In the yellow fleet (not that I saw much of it). Gonzalo Costa Hoevel (ARG-3) had a battle all day with Dutchman Dennis Littel (NED-13) having two wins a piece. Dennis took the final race of the day (Race 4) in style winning by a considerable margin (check the second video above for a few comments from Dennis). So it appears Gonzo hasn’t lost too much speed with the new board choice of Exocet and Dennis is in contention for a podium spot if he keeps his speed up.

Tomorrow, the forecast is either NO WIND, or 18-20 knots, depending on which website you check. We know for certain the weekend will be windy and raining however we’ll find out tomorrow whether the breeze arrives earlier than Saturday… enjoy some photos from the day in the meantime…

DAY 3:

Day 3 of racing started with the decision to be made of whether we stick in the qualification fleets (blue/yellow) for 2 more races, which allowed us only 1 drop, or for 4 more races, which would allow us a second drop and a good opportunity for some of us to get some better results on the board before we go to the gold fleet racing.

The wind, once again, took a long time to come in and it wasn’t until 1.30pm or so that the first races for the day kicked off. Ceri briefed us in the morning that we would race as Gold/Silver fleets after the first 2 races today meaning that we only have 1 drop during the qualification series.

The wind was pretty light; around 10 knots and most of the fleet again rigged the 12m’s and lightwind fins. I started in the yellow fleet today which included Steve,Wojtek, Arnon, Hubert and event leader Dennis Littel. The wind was super light on the beach and myself and quite a few others couldn’t get on the plane to make it to the startline so we drifted towards the line watching the time tick down to the last 3 mins …

With 2 mins to go to the start I managed to get planing and headed for the pin end, just downwind of Wojtek and the first runner to the pin end of the start. Somehow I managed to get there in time and had a cracking start at the pin end in clear air and looked back to see about half the fleet still on the line trying to get moving. I got around the top mark in about 6th or 7th with Steve leading the next pack of sailors including Dennis in about 5th place. All fleets were running the inner loop course which meant the downwind was relatively short and so was the second upwind. As we all came around the bottom mark to begin the second lap a few guys headed upwind along the beach (me included) which ended up being fairly punishing as the wind got very light in this corner of Beach B. I probably lost a few places here but managed to have a good second downwind putting in 2 extra gybes and going inside to get back in to 8th overall in this race.

Dennis somehow managed to smoke everyone in this race, including Steve and took his next bullet for the event keeping him a clear 2 points in first.

After these two final qualification races and a short lunch break we were back out on the water for the first Gold Fleet race. A lot of us had rigged 11m sails as the wind had picked up to around 15-16 knots on the boat however on the startline with only a minute to go the wind dropped to sub 10 knots and a lot of us got buried with the smaller sails on the line. I trudged around with Dennis for most of this race, somewhere deep in the 30′s or 40′s!! By the time we got to the downwind mark the race crew pulled the plug due to the lack of wind. Apparently, Steve had already FINISHED the race and Dennis and myself hadn’t even finished Lap 1 !! I think Dennis was pretty happy that race got canned!

After waiting until 6.30pm to try and restart Race 7 we eventually were sent home (thank god!); what a long day on the beach!

DAY 4:

For the first time this event we actually had wind to start the racing at the scheduled kick-off time of 11am. It had rained during the night and with the new direction of westerly winds we still had the clouds around and didn’t really get to see the sun at all today. It was difficult to judge how strong the actual wind was for the beginning of the first race at 11am and many of us decided to take 11m sails despite the fact that when we got to the startline (which was much further upwind this time) the wind was around 8-9 knots!

Dennis, Arnon, Markus, a few French guys and me decided to start on port as we were worried we wouldn’t get off the line on starboard with the light winds. This ended up being the worst decision ever as a decent gust hit the course from out to sea and the guys at the boat got it a good 15 seconds before us which meant NONE of us got off the line on port! Dennis decided to sail home rather than sail this race from last position and Arnon, myself and Markus kept on – finishing with results DEEP in the 30′s! Arnon however, had an insane second upwind and managed to get back to 10th which was fairly impressive. Gonzalo, who was also on 11m, was fairly deep in the results also however he was later given OCS for this race.

The next 3 races were very similar as we ran the same course all day. An inner loop course with a short slalom finish to bring us back to the beach for the spectators. The wind stayed around 12-13 knots all day so most of us stayed on the 12m sails although I did see Steve take his 11m for the final race. It was tight up at the front with Dennis having a consistent day getting a 2nd and a 4th and taking the bullet in Race 9. Ross jumped up into 3rd overall taking two firsts in Race 7 and 8 and Jesper kept his second spot by taking the bullet in Race 10.

I had a relatively lousy day with my best result being a 17th in the tough Gold Fleet racing. I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get some more wind as the swell gets up pretty quickly here in Leba and I enjoy the higher wind sailing on the 11m with difficult choppy conditions; not to be it seems! I wasn’t the only one finding today challenging as many of the guys up the front of the pack like Gonzo, Wojtek, Arnon etc had some shocking results in the last 3 races… tough, tough, tough.

Dennis is still 3 points ahead of Jesper in 2nd and with only 4 more possible races tomorrow it will be a close finish to find the European Champion. With the forecast for tomorrow relatively similar to today I think the conditions will suit Dennis again as he is really flying on his MauiSails 12m in these lighter breezes. Being based in the Netherlands for most of my European adventures the past 5 years I can only hope we get a Dutch guy on the podium tomorrow night! Go Dennis!!

DAY 5:

The final day of racing in Leba would have been very tense for many of the guys up at the front. Dennis was still leading, but now only 2 points in front of Jesper and another 2 points to Ross Wililams (GBR-83). At 11am on the dot we were out on the water sailing about 1km out to sea as the wind was extremely offshore and light and the visibility was quite low with the low cloud hanging around. All on our 12m’s, the first few starts were general recalls as the wind was starting to shift considerably and a lot of people were getting away too early to make sure they could plane at all!

When we finally did start, the wind turned quite feral and the race became quite a lottery due to the fact that most of us who started on port, couldn’t find the top mark layline in the misty scenery and rounding the top mark we began to get 30-50 degree windshifts every few seconds and the wind petered out! Although the order up the front was fairly usual, most of us between 15th place and back couldn’t finish the first lap as we were stuck at the bottom mark in no wind. Finally after 6 mins of waiting we were able to get around the final lap. It took me 39 mins to finish this race and I was one of the last few places to make it in the time limit! (+25 guys did not make the time!) – and of that 39 mins I’m pretty sure I spent about 15 mins of it drifting; waiting for wind. 2.5 hours later we made it home to the beach as we had to drift in 0 wind upwind about 2km against the tide to make it to the beach!

So after that miserable race and now 3pm in the afternoon we thought the event would be over as there seemed no chance of wind. However around 4pm, the wind again picked up however swinging to the NW (sideshore) and increasing to around 12-15 knots consistently. We rigged our 12m’s again (I decided to go with 11m and i think Steve might have been the only other) and headed out again for the next start however with a few mins to go to the gun the wind kicked to 20-24 knots!

The race was fairly chaotic at this point as most of the fleet were on 12m’s or 11m’s with super lightwind settings and the waves increased to around 1.5m and quite steep. There was carnage everywhere with plenty of people putting it in the drink on the downwind and Michal Polanowski (POL-16) KO’ing Dennis at the first mark causing Dennis to not be able to finish the race – and potentially lose the title!

I held on for a 20th in this race despite being in the top 10 at the first mark but with no chicken strap or any outhaul on my bagged out 11m I put it in the drink trying to gybe in the shorebreak on the final downwind leg! Ouch…

The final race started only 10 mins after this race as they needed to be run back-to-back to make the final cutoff timelimit. A few lucky guys managed to rig their 10m’s but I only had time to put a chicken strap on and a few more mm’s of downhaul on my 11m. I had been waiting all week for some strong wind and here it was and i wasn’t too prepared!

This was probably the craziest race I’ve sailed in a while as everyone seemed super overpowered and out of control in the gusts up to 28 knots and breaking waves around 1.5-2m. I had a great start at the pin end and was one of the first to the beach to make the tack onto port to the layline – having to dodge at least 3 really BRUTAL head-on crashes where people on port couldn’t get out of the way of the guys coming across on starboard to the layline in the crazy winds! I rounded the top mark in about 8th just behind Jesper and Dennis with Wojtek leading the race by a decent margin at this point.

Downwind was pretty out of control for me on the 11m. I’m not sure how everyone else was doing but I lost a few places with an amateur gybe going into the windward mark and had to sit in all the guys dirty air on the next beat. It appeared to work a little better going towards the shore than beating out to sea as I did and coming around the upwind mark I had dropped back to about 18th in this race. Luckily I had some good downwind speed and overtook Hubert (POL-25) and a few French guys to get back to 15th.

The interesting parts of the day were about to come as Dennis, with his DNF in the second last race had now lost the title and Steve Allen, with a relatively consistent but not with any bullets kinda day, had suddenly jumped from 4th to 1st! A feat nobody thought possible with Dennis’ form this week. Dennis hit the protest room and it was up to the jury to decide who had won the FW European Championships…

…the verdict … POL-16 DSQ’d for hitting Dennis in Race 12 but Dennis only given reddress for his average in the ‘gold fleet’ races, not the entire event and his worst performances were later in the regatta meaning he would drop from 1st to 4th in these last two races! Devo’d.

Here’s a few clips from the prizegiving ceremony and party from the Allegro Cup. The night’s entertainment included a free concert from Jamaican/American rockstar “Shaggy” and a disco tent with the best of Polish dj’s for the sailors. A good 3000-4000 people (it seemed) were on the beach braving the cold weather for the prizegiving ceremony and it never ceased to amaze me how much work was put in to the setup of this event by Allegro. The 2008 Allegro Cup Winner is Steve Allen and the FW European Champion is Ross Williams (Steve is not European, so can not have the title, only the prizemoney!).

We will for sure be back to Leba for another amazing event next year and once again I’m sure we will be amazed how they can manage to top the event from last year once again each time! Thanks to all the crew from Allegro and everyone involved in one the best windsurfing events this year!

In the seaside town of Pobierowo, Poland the Euro Challenge FW Event begins tomorrow with 3 days of racing action on the Baltic Sea. Sean will be writing daily reports from the event as well as the videos with interviews, racing and all the beach action from Pobierowo. Find the Regatta Report below as well as the results and official news from the FW.org website:

• Official News on Formula Windsurfing Website

DAY 0:

Ok, so I arrived with Markus Bouman late Tuesday night in Pobierowo and managed to find a nice hotel at a reasonable price (by Polish standards). We figured we’d get some training in on Wednesday and Thursday however the beach has proved to be so crowded we couldn’t even get our gear down to the beach – let alone park within walking distance! By Thursday afternoon (registration began at 4pm) we hadn’t yet discovered where the event site actually was because we hadn’t come across any other sailors except one other Dutch guy!

Finally, a girl from the organisation found us and we discovered the Registration building (away from the beach) and paid our 200 zloty for entry (it was actually cheaper to pay entry in Euros as they weren’t using an up to date exchange rate – however none of us had any Euros with us ~ a lesson for next time! haha). Once registered we decided to head back home and put the sponsor stickers on our sails in the nice grassy frontyard of our hotel rather than share the beach with 7 million other Polish holidaymakers.

By the time we left registration at 6pm there were only 4 people registered from the event; myself, two Dutch guys and a Lithuanian – however I did see a few Polish windsurfing vans arrive as we are leaving so I’m sure there will be plenty more arriving for registration tomorrow morning.

We had 20 knots sideshore (NE) all day today and this is the same forecast all week (well, to be specific, the forecast is 10-15 knots NE however there is a good thermal effect here with the hot land close to the beach so it is adding another 5 or so knots to the breeeze) – so we should get a full three days of great racing action!

Tune in tomorrow for more videos and a blow-by-blow from the racing! First race kicks off at 11am (Polish time) so it will be a perfect warmup for the Formula European Championships in Leba next week.

DAY 1:

I knew as soon as I got out of bed this morning that it was going to be windy! Arriving at the beach at around 8am (we still hadn’t brought the gear to the beach as there was no where to put it last night), already most of the Polish contingent had arrived as well as a few guys from France, Britain and Lithuania. After we’d mission’ed the gear to the beach I rigged up the 10m Vapor and went for a test drive – wind was around 20-22 knots so I had plenty of power with my 10m.

The racing took a while to start as the organisers were having trouble with boats so after a lazy morning we began the first race around 1pm. That allowed some time for the guys arriving from the PWA Fuerteventura event; including Arnon Dagan and Gonzalo Costa Hoevel and Steve Allen – Steve had driven the entire night from Warsaw after losing his slalom gear at the airport and having to organise the family also (didn’t seem to effect him though!). As we had Arnon’s (new fw kit in our van, we helped him unload. Arnon = “Damn, I’ve been sailing a 5.0m for the last three weeks, this sail’s pretty big!” (holding his 12m still in the plastic).

Race 1 kicked off at 1pm with myself and Hubert (POL-25) having a great start behind Gonzalo (ARG-3) in the first upwind. Steve was really flying today and put himself in a good position for the win early. I got round the top mark in 5th just behind Dennis Littel (NED-13) and in front of Ross Williams (GBR-83) however I lost a little time on the downwind nearly eating it in the big swell and managed to put it in the drink TWICE trying to get around the top mark on the second lap. Luckily half the fleet double tacked this mark also so I managed to hold on to a Top 10 finish with Steve (AUS-0) taking the bullet. Special mention goes to Arnon who took a huge over the front on the first downwind ~ amatuer hour!!

Race 2 was very similar with Steve leading early and me having an average start close to the boat. The wind had shifted a little more to the E-NE (it felt) so it was a very boat favoured line and most of us were crowding near the boat. I got a little stuck behind POL-1 and Hubert again so tacked away early up the first leg back towards the shore which appeared to give a decent knock on port but a nice lift out of the beach on starboard once I’d tacked back. I was a little bit further down the pack in this race around the top mark with my bad start however I managed to smoke Ross, POL-1 and a few other guys on the downwind and get back in to the Top 8 for the second lap. Been a while (or never) since I’d smoked people downwind so prop’s to the guys back home making my fins! Hard to know the full results as there have been a few OCS (over early’s) and there wasn’t any results on the beach for us to check out. I’m gonna guess I finished around 6th in this race but one thing I am sure about was Steve took another bullet.

Race 3 and 4 continued in a similar fashion. Steve took the bullets and everyone took a turn at putting it in the drink including Dennis, me, Markus Bouman (NED-6), Arnon again and even Gonzalo at one point! The waves were about 1m breaking on the beach in a harsh dump however out to see we had a very steep 2.5m wave which made it difficult on the port tack downwind as we were heading straight over the back of the steep swells. Glad I am riding a Gaastra board (so is Steve) as this thing never digs the nose in vicious swell.

After 4 races of 15-20 mins each we were all pretty battered so after derigging and filling all our gear, wetsuits and bags with sand (welcome to Poland!) it was back to the apartment to prepare for tomorrow.

The forecast is the same each day so we know we are all going to get some decent racing in before heading to Leba. If Leba lives up to its name you KNOW we are going to have 6 days of 8 knots there which will be great after a week of 25 knots (haha, NOT!). I still have yet to rig my 12m in Europe yet as there hasn’t been a day under 20 knots since I arrived 3 weeks back :-/

Tune in tomorrow to see if anyone can actually beat Steve (although if they can’t beat him when he spent the entire night driving a car on Polish roads, I can’t see their chances when he’s had a good nights’ sleep).

DAY 2:

Day 2 of racing kicked off with a bit of comedy when a bunch of Polish guys driving a big orange rescue truck managed to submerge it in the soft sand at the edge of the beach. 3 hours, 2 other 4WD’s and 4 towing cables later they somehow managed to get it out! (See the end of the above video to know what I am talking about).

Race 5 kicked off around 11.30am this morning with winds a lot weaker than yesterday. Most of us rigged 11m’s as it was around 12-15 knots by the first gun however a few guys took advantage of the flatter water from yesterday and took out their 12m’s. Racing was much the same as yesterday with a NE breeze on the beach making the startline very boat biased and hardly any port starters having a try. Steve had a lousy start in the middle of the line allowing me to get around the top mark ahead of him in 3rd behind Gonzalo and Wojtek. The course was a windward/leeward first lap then a reach mark on the second lap (outer-loop, basically). I would prefer something without REACHING (our fins are much too soft these days to enjoy that!) but the course has been laid perfectly for the winds so we can’t complain.

Steve and Dennis and Ross took the inside line on the downwind and managed to get ahead of me to the bottom mark but I lucked out tacking early back out to sea on the second lap instead of following the pack into the beach in their dirty wind and I dropped a few places in this race. I don’t think Steve managed to get back in time so he finished third with Wojtek and Gonzalo ahead.

Race 6 and 7 were pretty much re-runs of the first. The wind didn’t change direction much however there was a good lift on starboard tack coming out of the beach so many who started on starboard and tacked early on to port (back to the beach) did quite well to the first mark. Steve was usually a culprit for this and I followed him a few times having some terrible starts and having to tack back not because it was tactically correct; but because I was getting punished by half the fleet. Steve won the next two races and I sat around 10th and 12th in these two – seemingly always one place behind Dennis Littel.

Race 8 started later in the day (around 4pm I think?) as we had a 30 min break because of the wind increasing to around 20-22 knots. I (as did everyone) stayed on the 11m and had some great speed on the first upwind getting around the top mark in a large pack – only 30m separating 1st to 10th. I’m still getting used to having NO deckgrip on my Vapor board (can’t remember the Starboards being this slippery!) and I did a muppet gybe trying to not slip off the deck on the first downwind and managed to completely lose the pack in a matter of seconds. Luckily I had some good upwind speed and managed to catch up a little on the second lap as I was far enough behind to stay out of the dirty air of those in front. I believe Dennis finished just ahead of me (or Pawel, POL-11) however I was too far behind to see who was winning. Arnon, Steve, Gonzalo, Polanowski and Hubert were all up the front today so my guess would be Steve took the bullet – until I can ACTUALLY FIND the results somewhere and confirm.

The forecast is a little lighter tomorrow so there’s a chance I can finally rig my 12m (for the first time since arriving in Europe 3 weeks ago) and try out some of my new lightwind fins. Steve only needs one more win to take the event out however he’s the type of guy who’d just prefer to take 4 wins tomorrow to be safe …

Photos from the event.

DAY 3:

The final day of racing kicked off with much lighter breezes around 10-12 knots and most of us pulling out the 12.0′s for the first time in this event. A few minutes before the first start a strange (but thick) fog drifted on to the course making it impossible to see any of the marks or even the beach if you were out on the water and so the first race was delayed another 45 mins or so until the fog cleared. We don’t have fog (or rain, even) like this where I live so it was pretty strange to see…

Finally, we were out on the water around 1.30pm and the first race had a very lightwind start with most of us crowding together at the pin end to get clear air. I’m not sure who it was but there was a horrendous port/starboard crash right in front of me about 3 seconds before the gun. You know the CRUNCH sound when somebody drives a car over a child’s leg and you hear the bones shattering… that was the sound when these two boards hit. Unfortunately, as I was just behind I had to sail to leeward of the first dropped sail which meant I dipped about 15m below the line right on the gun. Suffice to say, I got PRETTY PUNISHED in this start and had to tack away early to get clean air. Steve had a cracking start at the pin and took the lead from start to finish with Wojtek and Ross not too far behind in 2nd and 3rd. This was the beginning of my two worst races of the day as I hadn’t sailed my 12m yet and was testing a new light wind fin (which turned out to be pretty lousy). I was deep in the teens at the finish of this race.

Race 10 and 11 kicked off about 45 mins apart with the wind increasing each race up to 18 knots by the final start. I had the 12m in the second race but had a lightwind setting and the wind kicked up to around 15 knots for this race and I had trouble keeping the sail locked down. It appears I wasn’t the only one having a bad race as Steve had his second drop in this heat, finishing 7th (somehow) and allowing Wojtek to take the win. Out of the start, as I was sitting behind Steve I could see Polanowski just a touch in front of Steve grinding super high and going slow to keep Steve out. This probably wasn’t the smartest move I believe as in the meantime, Wojtek and Gonzalo (who were downwind of them both) were going full power at a much faster speed and were clearing out on Polan and Steve. Neither of them had a good finish in that race as a result of this…

Racing had to finish by 3pm so we didn’t have time for a final 4th race on the last day however all of us enjoyed the racing over the weekend so we were more than happy to pack up early. The presentation kicked off on a small stage at one end of the rigging area on the beach and as this event was also the Polish Championships there was a plethora of trophies and medals for all the Polish competitors as well as us internationals.

Steve; winning the event, did his typical speech in Polish. Apparently (this was translated to me later) he spoke about how nice the contest was and about how tired he was from travelling from the PWA event in Fuerteventura the day before because the drive was so “short”. Wojtek corrected him on stage about how to say “long” in Polish. Guess it was one of those ‘had to be there funny stories’ but you can see Wojtek correcting him on the video above that I made… it was pretty funny ;)

Shortly after the prizegiving, the organisers wanted a group photo of all the competitors on the stage. With +60 people on the small stage it COLLAPSED! Luckily the stage was only 50cm off the ground otherwise we could of done some serious damage however the young Polish guys standing on the podium at the time came off second best with one of them completely destroying his trophy when he fell off the podium and off the stage!! haha.

So most of the sailors are driving tonight to Leba for the Formula European Championships which start later this week. Myself and the Dutch guys will stay tonight in Pobierowo and drive to Leba tomorrow morning.

After 3 days of racing we completed 11 races in PERFECT conditions in a variety of winds. The organisation in Poland (as usual) was flawless and this was really a fantastic event – hopefully we can all come to this relatively new Polish location again next year.

Stay tuned for more updates, reports and silly videos from Leba starting later this week!