Racing Gets Underway

Following three days of practice and measurement, the Championship got underway in ernest yesterday with three qualification races sailed on the Ijsselmeer in the Netherlands.

Sailed from the Yacht Club Sneek, the Championship is open to male, female or mixed crews in this class, which makes its debut as the equipment for the Women’s Keelboat event at the Athens Olympic Games. However, for this week there is a healthy mix of both sexes racing together for the title of Open European Champion.

Scheduled to have six qualification races and following the culmination of at least three of these, the 81 boat entry will be split into Gold and Silver fleets for the remaining eight races to determine the champion.

Current leader after the first day of racing is the all-male crew skippered by Claus HOJ JENSEN (DEN) with Jacob GUHLE and Morten HARMSEN as the middle and bow men on the team. They had an excellend start to the day by scoring two second place finishes before upping the game to gain that extra place in the final race.

The game has only just begun though and the leading Danish crew are followed closely by Denmark’s 2004 Women’s World Champion Trine PALLUDAN, sailing with male middle man Nikolaj KAMEDULA and her usual bow girl Ida Hartvig LARSEN. Showing how strong Denmark is in this class, despite winning the 2004 Women’s World Championship, Palludan will not be the nation’s representative in Athens: That spot is taken by Dorte JENSEN.

In third place are the Russian number two trio and the first all female crew in the regatta at the moment. Anna BASALKINA, Vladislava UKRAINCHEVA and Galina LUKACHOVA are looking good and are on equal points with Palludan, dropping to third only on countback with two firsts and a fifth.

Racing continues in the Netherlands until Saturday 24 July, when a European Champion will be crowned. Full results and photos are available on the event website at the address below.

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