Nearly 50 boats took part in Round 1 of the 29er Eurocup event in Lake Garda over the Easter weekend
Just under 50 29ers descended upon Yacht Club Acquafresca, Brenzone at Lake Garda for the long Easter weekend and the first round of the 29er Eurocup. Teams from Denmark, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Italy and four British boats all travelled to what was promising to be one of the most exiting events of the year.
However, Lake Garda did not want to play. Many of the teams arrived early to practice and were greeted by a grey fog covering the lake with no wind at all. This continued into the regatta itself and with the forecast not looking promising it could almost have been a no sailing event. Thankfully Sunday dawned with wind – but it was 7am in the morning and it was from the south. The fleet launched only to watch the light breeze fade. Eventually a northerly settled in so that two races could be held before the wind changed back to the thermal southerly. With a good breeze building the race officer was able to get three more races in before it to faded to a flat calm once again.
The racing was tight and on short courses the start and first beat were the make or break. It was the senior members of the fleet who showed that youth is not all! Helle Orum-Nielson and Simon Jensen from Denmark put together a consistent series in the trying conditions to take the overall first prize. Dave Hall and Jessica Smith from Great Britain were hot on their heels until a bad last race left them out of the running for first and having to defend second place overall from Henrick Sogaard and Soren Kristenson who eventually finished one point behind Hall and Smith. The top three all shared the race wins apart from the Italian sisters Sara and Anna Postogna with their bright pink spinnaker who won the fourth race and were fist all girl team at sixth overall. The fleet move to on to the next round at Kiel Week in June.
Overall Results
1 DEN-551 Helle Orum and Simon Jensen
2 GBR-777 David Hann and Jessica Smith
3 DEN-370 Henrik Sogaard and Soren Kristensen
4 GER-778 Christopher Horsch and Agnes Ellerbroer
5 GER-1031 Benjamin Friedhoff and Johanna Munding
6 ITA-696 Sara and Anna Postogna