With light winds early in the morning the postponement flag went up for the Tornado Class and the sailors remained on shore watching the A Class’ float out to their racing area. Around 1 hour later the race officer removed the postponement and the sailors got ready and went out onto the water.
It was Roland and Nahid Gaebler who held the lead going into the last day and they were hoping there would be no racing because the Greek team of Iordanis and Kostas could discard a 5th if there was further racing in the championship.
Soon after there were 32 Tornado’s drifting toward the start boat waiting for the race officers instructions, it didn’t look good with the postponement flag on the front of the committee boat struggling to fly in the light airs.
One hour later the wind had disappeared and two hoots were what the sailors were waiting for after a challenging series of racing. It was time to head home and pack up ready for the road home.
Roland and Nahid Gaebler are the new Tornado European Champions, knocking the Greek Red Bull sailors off the podium they have held since 2008. Roland’s last European Championships victory came in the 1990’s.
A big thank you to the Yacht Club Rheindelta and everyone involved in organising the Championships, it has been a great few days for the sailors with a good mixture of social and sailing.
The next major Championships for the Tornado Class is the World Championships being held in Ibiza in late September, the planning is already well underway. Before that there are a variety of races being held around the World which also include the Austrian Championships in Attersee next week.