News Junior Europeans: News from Balaton

Back

Junior Europeans: News from Balaton

16
Aug 2009
We are in Balaton (in the Editor's case after a bit of a rush with boats to move from Riva to the UK before a late flight to Budapest).
This news belongs to
2009 420 Junior European Championships
ALL EVENT INFORMATION

We are in Balaton (in the Editor's case after a bit of a rush with boats to move from Riva to the UK before a late flight to Budapest). Measurement completed yesterday, preparations were frenetic, practice races were held (in flights - ithe "blue" fleet had red pennants, which added to the interest) and the Opening Ceremony was held as part of a cultural event - Balaton is very busy with holiday-makers, as well as sailors from 31 nations.

Now (midday), a calm has fallen on the boatpark (bathed in sunshine) as all the 420s and 470s have launched and gone to their race areas. The wind forecast for today is 5 - 6 knots ("maybe up to 8"). Yesterday, for the Practice Race, they had 6 - 7 knots, and Soulis Papantoniou, the 420 Class Course Representative, was pleasantly surprised that variations in direction were only within 10* either way. Stormy weather is forecast this evening and in the night. This could produce stronger winds over the next two days, then dropping back to light, before a further increase to stronger winds over the weekend. We await further forecasts with keen interest. Anyway, racing has started.

We are not able to bring you up-to-the moment reporing on starts & and finishes here - as we did for the Worlds (this is something of a relieif as reports and photos took second place in Riva and may mean you can get some work done back home!), but we do expect fairly prompt result-posting on this website - these will be not only "provisional", but "draft"! - because they will be radio-reported and unchecked with the Race Committee until their return to shore - you have been warned! (of course, the usual Provisional Results before Protest hearings will be posted for the sailors here, and we will endeavour to up-date the version on the Class website as soon as we can).

If you have queries or comments - Send Email. We will try and monitor, but outgoing e-mail is a challenge! (Skype is good, Herv