Day one of the Tornado European Championships kicked off today with perfect conditions; a nice consistent force 3 breeze and beautiful sunshine.
13 boats from 5 nations, CZE, GBR, GER, GRE and NED have arrived to try and prevent Dany and Kostas from winning their 5th Tornado European Championships in a row.
Two races were scheduled for today and after the briefing the boats were underway aiming for an 11.30am start.
At the start of the first race a few boats had to duck back behind the line after being a bit too keen off the line, throughout the race the wind was building and challenging the teams across the course. It was the young Greek team of Niklos Mavros and Alexandros Targarpolous who took the race victory pulling away from the fleet. They were followed by Dany and Kostas then Roland and Nahid.
Race two provided the sailors with some interesting conditions and lots of weed across the race course. The wind strength was up and down and changing direction depending on where you were. The weed also caused another issue with sailors having to lift their rudders and boards every so often to release the drag and gain full speed. Again the top 3 from the race were the same with the young Greek team shining through.
This evening the sailors have enjoyed a BBQ put on by the club in their lovely sunny scenic location overlooking the water.
Tomorrow three races are scheduled and the fleet will be heading further out into the Markermeer to avoid the weed.
Photos by Martina Bartenova
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