FW Europeans – Day one …racers impression

Today is the first day of European Championships in Douarnenez. The scenery is very nice here with some hills and mountains on the other side of the lake. On the day I arrived the wind was offshore and very strong. The guys came off the water because there was the much wind for them to do Formula Windsurfing so they went for a wave session at the other side of the peninsula (Audierne). Nice to see those guys making one handed loops and stuff.

Today we had one race. Wind was offshore again and very light and gusty. I wanted to start over port as the only girl and thought this would be a big advantage. But there was some confusion about the starting procedure so I had to go back to the starting boat and start over starboard like the other girls. Had some bad luck in the first upwind because my harness line got loose on one side (although I checked it before). So my position in the field wasn’t very good. After the second lap they cancelled the race and sent us back to the startboat. Some girls were almost at the finish by then and about 10 men already finished so this decision came a bit late!!! Lucky for me though. Atmosphere is very good, I like the music on the beach. Hope for some nice low wind racing tomorrow.

Cindy Koopman

NED-166

(Fanatic, Kater Surf)

The first day of Europeans turned out to be just another training day. Having seen the conditions I was quite surprised when the Race Committee sent us out to the water. (The offshore wind from 5 to 14 knots and shifts up to 60 degrees.) I took my Nitro4 11m and Starboard 147 together with Deboichet R13 M+. The race director decided to start the men fleet first, women together with youth were the next. So we watched the guys starting, I thought the wind was clearly under the limit of 7 knots. But most of them planed and the start was clear, I think there was still little bit of current pushing the sailors downwind. We started 9 minutes behind them. I managed to get a very good start on port tack at the pin end and together with the top youth Alberto Menegati (Ita-456) we raced the whole upwind, which was actually super long. Unfortunately we soon caught up with the men and I raced my two laps with them, probably finishing in the middle of the fleet. And as it turned out at the finishing line the race was cancelled. I see on the website now, that KJ had no information about women at all, which is no wonder – during the whole race the only girl I saw was Sarah Hebert (Starboard) and the rest we didn’t see among the whole crowd. We need to try to talk to the Race Director to change that schedule. We know this already for many years, that if we start behind 100 people fleet our racing is never be noticed.