1998 European Championship, Nieuwpoort, Belgium

To Results

Monday

After the practice race was cancelled on Sunday, two races were run on Monday in challenging conditions.

Wind : 20-22 knots, gusting 27
Temperature : 20 degrees and sunshine
Waves : 1.5 – 2 meters

Race 1 (by Nick Craig GBR 2090)

The OK Europeans opened with exciting conditions – force 6 and 10 feet waves !

Jørgen Lindhardtsen (Denmark) led from Nick Craig (UK) and Jan-Ditmar Dellas (Germany) at the windward mark. Some heavy reaching saw Oliver Gronholz (Germany) and Dave Carroll (UK) close up.

These positions remained upwind and a carnage run saw Bart Bomans (Belgium) to loose his tiller, Lindhardtsen to face a ribbing a bar by tacking, not gybing, and Craig to capsize.

At the last leeward mark, Lindhardtsen led from Carroll, Thomas Hansson-Mild (Sweden) and Gronholz.

Lindhardtsen must have eaten a lot of pie because he held on from Dave ‘I eat pie for breakfast’, Carroll, fast finsihing Craig, Hansson-Mild and Gronholz.

Race 2 (by Jan-Dietmar Dellas GER 698)

This report was written after the free beer, so it is rather short.

In the second race, the wind increased slightly, but remained under 28 knots, so it was still possible to sail.

After the first beat I was leading, chased closely by Jørgen Lindhardtsen. During the remainder after the race, the old man showed everyone how you should sail in the conditions : fast.

Tuesday

Wind : 18-20 knots
Temperature : 20 degrees and sunshine
Waves : 2 meters

Race 3 (by David Carroll GBR 2085)

Race 3 started in a fresh force 5 which stayed throughout the race.

With a following tide, most of the fleet overstood the first mark with Jan-Dietmar Dellas rounding first, followed by Jørgen Lindgardtsen and David Carroll.

By the gybe mark, Carroll led, then Lindhardtsen and Dellas. Bart Bomans came through to fourth.

At the top mark it was Lindhardtsen showing superb upwind speed followed by Carroll and Bomans. Positions remained the same for the run but by the finish Jan-Diemar used his superior bulk to good use to take second from Carroll on the final beat.

Wednesday

Wind : 15-25 knots
Temperature : 18 degrees
Waves : 0.5 meters

Race 4 (by Peter Scheuerl GER 618)

Race 4 started in about 20 knots and 1 meter waves, some bigger.

The first mark saw Jørgen Lindhardtsen leading again from David Carroll and Jan-Dietmar Dellas.

On the first reach, with perfect surfing conditions, Bart Bomans and Peter Scheuerl passed Jan-Dietmar followed by a cluster of boats. Jørgen gybed first, followed by David, Bart and Peter. The boats behind got some trouble because of a gust and inside boats capsizing.

On the second reach, Peter managed to overtake Bart and David and gained a lot on Jørgen.

For the rest of the race, Jørgen lead from Peter and some distance away, David and Bart got their race with the rest of the fleet well behind.

Race 5 (by Bart Bomans BEL 44)

The wind increased after race 4 up to 25 knots.

At the fist mark, Jørgen Lindhardtsen (who else) was leading from Oliver Gronholz and Jörn Wille.

At the third mark, after some of the most spectacular reaches one could imagine, Jørgen was still in the lead. At this stage, Bart Bomans was in second and David Carroll in third.

On the beat, Jørgen kept a loose cover over the others, and left them battling it out for second place.

This battle was mostly fought on the run, after which the positions became Jørgen, David, Bart, Oliver and Antoni Pawlowski.

Antoni overtook Oliver on the last beat, which gave the following result : Jørgen, David, Bart, Antoni and Oliver, which means five differemt countries on the first five places.

Thursday

Wind : 0-10 knots
Temperature : 20 degrees
Waves : 0.2 meters

Friday

Wind : 15 knots
Temperature : 18 degrees
Waves : 0.5 meters