1998 Polish Nationals, Mielno

Mielno, 20-23. August 1998

This year the Polish Nationals were held in Mielno, a small city between the Jamno lake and the Baltic See. We were racing on the lake. There were standard course as during the Europeans, (START-1-2-3-1-3-FINISH). The racing area was planned on a bigger part of the lake about 1 km from the port.

20 August

Race 1
The wind was light : 1-2 Beaufort. At mark 1 Sandro Myszkowski (POL 75) was first but afterwards he capsized. Boguslaw was first at mark 3 after the first lap and he won this race.

Race 2
When we were going back after the finish of race 1, the wind completely changed its direction (about 180 degrees), and began to weaken. The committee decided to change the course after race 1. After a general recall, the committee changed the course again. After the start, we made a mistake and went to mark 2, before we realised that mark 1 was somewhere else. The wind was 0. When we were at mark 1, it begun to blow about 1, but it stopped again at mark 3. We went without wind to mark 1 again , and when we were half way to mark 3, the committee decided to shorten the race , and the wind changed direction about 180 degrees. In this race, Antoni Pawlowski(POL 31) led from start to finish.

21 August

Race 3
This day, the meteo predicted stronger winds. When we approached the start line, it began to blow 3 to 4. Race 3 was generally the best race , wind 3-4 wasn’t too strong, and not too weak. Winner was Antoni Pawlowski.

Just after this race it began to blow 5-6 and when we got down to the start, we realised the wind had become 6-7. The committee decided to postpone race 4 to the next day.

22 August

Race 4
This day the wind was 5-6, with gusts upto 7. The committee decided to have the race on a smaller part of the lake, near the port, but only 25-30 sailors started. During the complete race the wind was strong and we had lot of fun. One more thing which was unusual was that we had no waves, because we were racing on lake. The winner was Antoni.

Race 5
Race 5 was similar to race 4. The wind was strong, we had a lot of fun, and the winner was Antoni. I didn’t finish this race because I destroyed my sail, and Pawel Kromski destroyed his mast. This things happened while we were racing, not because of a capsize.

23 August

Race 6
This day wind was the same as the day before, and we were racing on the smaller part of the lake. The finish line was 20 meters from the port. Antoni Pawlowski and Boguslaw Moczorodynski said that they wouldn’t go out because of the strong wind. They knew that they had won the event. There was strong competition between Marian Jankowski and Slawomir Blaszka for third place, but eventually Slawomir broke his boom vang, while running, and couldn’t finish. Jaroslaw Wojewski won the race.

Except for the second race, when there was no wind, I believe this event was very good.