262 young sailors at European Laser 4.7 Champs

by Event media on 24 Jul 2007 Massive Youth Fleet Master Dublin Bay’s Changeable Conditions at the European Laser 4.7 Championship.

The biggest youth sailing fleet seen on Dublin Bay successfully completed the opening two qualifying races for the European Laser 4.7 Championship at Dun Laoghaire Sunday.

With light variable winds forecast to increase in the afternoon International Race Officer Jack Roy postponed the scheduled start of race one by an hour. However conditions changed markedly throughout the day and race two provided quite a contrast.

Con Murphy, National Yacht Club Commodore, explained, 'The first race was run in light winds of just 5-7 knots but race two was quite different. It was started in torrential rain and provided winds 10-15 knots.'

With 262 young sailors on the water competitors are divided into four separate fleets – one female and three male. The initial four days of the championship is a qualifiying series for the male fleets, however after Wednesday they will be classified as either Gold, Silver or Bronze as they sail 2 races per day for the final series.

With each fleet scheduled to complete 12 races it is a daunting prospect for any Race Officer to ensure that all 262 boats away cleanly over 48 separate starts. However International Race Office Jack Roy has shown his intentions for the week with today’s efficient and clean starts.

Roy commented 'It’s a great experience for the sailors to compete in a regatta of this size and the standard of starts from the youngest to the oldest was fantastic with just a few OSC’s.'

As expected the Spanish contingent is proving very competitive however our Irish summer is failing to impress Sara Hernandez León who won the second race in the female fleet.

León from Tenerife said, 'It was a quiet windy during the race but it was also a lot colder than I’m used to.'

The logistics behind an event of this size is astonishing with 262 boats launched this morning in just 55 minutes however the slip master’s team broke that record later in the day when all boats were landed in less than 45 minutes.

Female Race Winners after 4 races (61 entries)

1 ITA 180388 de Luca, Serena 8.0 (15) 2 5 1
2 ITA 182954 Macchini, Elisabetta 16.0 1 9 6 (15)
3 POL 186837 Makowska, Ewa 16.0 11 (25) 3 2
4 CZE 185636 Audyova, Marketa 16.0 (23) 4 4 8
5 CRO 169854 Kordic, Antea 17.0 5 3 (10) 9
6 CRO 174208 Senkic, Matea 22.0 (24) 8 2 12
7 IRL 170856 White, Katie 27.0 (33) 13 8 6
8 ITA 185908 Giraldi, Kristina 31.0 7 14 (23) 10
9 GBR 184177 Fenton-jones, Mary 32.0 10 10 12 (13)
10 POL 160837 Lewandowska, Anastazja 37.0 8 (39) 22 7
11 ESP 183361 Hern ndez Le¢n, Sara 38.0 16 1 (28) 21
12 ESP 189285 Corral Bosch, Olimpia 38.0 21 6 11 (24)
13 SLO 175292 Krasevac, Marusa 39.0 9 17 13 (29)
14 TUR 190866 Sevgen, Arya 40.0 13 7 20 (dnf)
15 CRO 187074 Ganic, Tajana 40.0 14 (20) 15 11
16 BEL 180597 Stals, Adeline 42.0 19 5 (25) 18
17 CRO 177842 Stock, Lina 43.0 26 (29) 1 16
18 IRL 173098 Tingle, Katie 43.0 3 23 17 (42)
19 NED 186238 Oudshoorn, Jeanine 45.0 30 12 (ocs) 3
20 ISR 175510 Trifman, Inbar 50.0 17 (33) 16 17

Male Race Winners after 4 races (196entries)

1 RUS 181491 Chekh, Yan 6.0 (3) 3 2 1
2 RUS 151111 Zotov, Ivan 6.0 (3) 2 2 2
3 SLO 174364 Gulic, Andraz 7.0 2 (25) 1 4
4 CRO 187073 Matika, Filip 8.0 4 1 3 (17)
5 CRO 172582 Zahtila, Albert 10.0 1 (13) 7 2
6 ITA 178472 Bignoli, Boris 10.0 5 1 4 (11)
7 ITA 181071 Marega, Alessandro 10.0 2 5 (dnf) 3
8 ITA 187653 Sabbatini, Giacomo 13.0 2 1 (14) 10
9 POL 170891 Staszewski, Micha_ 15.0 8 (18) 1 6
10 ISR 165328 Ben-Horin, Hod 16.0 (26) 10 5 1
11 ITA 173372 Franciolini, Matteo 16.0 6 2 (22) 8
12 ITA 178518 Ciasca, Leonardo 17.0 3 2 12 (ocs)
13 GRE 91857 Chocholis, Alexandros 17.0 (9) 6 6 5
14 SUI 184732 Schopfer, Jonathan 18.0 6 (19) 11 1
15 SLO 174367 Valic, Matej 19.0 5 (12) 3 11
16 ESP 184329 Bernal Delgado, Alberto 20.0 1 7 (13) 12
17 CRO 189016 Peresa, Marko 20.0 (10) 3 10 7
18 GRE 159718 Kamilos, Dimitris 20.0 (16) 10 4 6
19 POL 186221 Kobielski, Filip 20.0 4 (12) 8 8
20 GRE 178481 Katsios, Alexios 21.0 7 (9) 7 7

Full provisional results will be available later on www.nyc.ie