by IHCA (as translated from French)

It is a beautiful and resplendent sun that welcomed the 133 sailors of the European Championship Hansa this morning at the Yacht Club de Mèze. After a very nice opening ceremony with oyster tasting, everyone was delighted to finally start the championship.

The Liberty and the Hansa 303 single person opened the regatta this morning. The competitors left on the water for a start at 10am, in 5-6 knots of westerly wind, forcing and turning northwest during the morning. During the first race, the wind rose to 20-25 knots and the sailors finished in difficult conditions. The committee was therefore forced to send everyone ashore to wait for the wind to calm down. The wind, however, decided to continue to blow and the chairman of the race committee, Bernard Porte, decided to postpone at 4pm.

He said: “We had good weather and a beautiful sea, but the wind is unfortunately too high. We were able to validate only one race in Liberty and Hansa 303 and zero in the other divisions. It’s still a good start to the championship! The forecast tomorrow morning is for more lenient weather conditions. This time it will be the doubles that will start. ”

Dutch sailor Vera Voorbach was very happy with her race in Liberty: “I’m really happy because I came second when I went very badly! I had very good speed which allowed me to catch the lead of the race. The end of the race was very difficult because the wind became really strong but I managed to finish and in addition to finish second so I am absolutely delighted! ”

Results for day one’s racing is available here.