Dutch sailor wins European warm-up

A report from the Laser Radial's Europa Cup in Poland

Leba, Poland saw over forty Laser Radials gather for the last leg of the Europa Cup series from 9-13 July prior to the Europeans in Bangor, Ireland.

The majority of the top European sailors were there and battled it out in a seven race series which rarely saw the westerly winds drop below force five. Rodie Mackelenbergh who has been runner up in two previous events, finally took a championship, but it was very tight, and things could have been very different if an eighth race had taken place (bringing in a second discard).

The first two days yielded just one race, the winner being James Royston from the UK who had excellent upwind speed all week, but despite leading the regatta from race one, he fell at the final hurdle.

Daniel Mihielic from Croatia who is still a youth will surely be one to watch in the future, winning race two by a considerable margin. One of the oldest competitors, Jon Emmett, took race three with Mackelenbergh finally finding his form with a win in race four.

Milosz Landowski from Poland pleased the home crowd with a win in race five. After five races the top five boats managed to open a points gap over the chasing fleet, However the championship was decided on the worst races in the series, not the best. With a race win in race six for Mihielic and race seven for Mackelenbergh, it was who could pull through the fleet the best in the other races. Although both scored two race wins, it was Mackelenbergh who counted all but one result in the top five to take the event.

Behind these two, just three points separated the next three boats, with a second place in the last race enough to put Emmett on the podium in front of local sailor Landowski. Royston had to suffer disappointment having fallen from first overall to fifth as a result of the last race. Race winners only came from the top five but in the end it was consistency which decided the regatta. As the series stands Emmett leads Mackelenbergh on tie breaker.

Overall results:

1st NED Rodie Mackelenbergh 17pts
2nd CRO Dan Mihielic 19pts
3rd GBR Jon Emmett 21pts
4th POL Milosz Landowski 23pts
5th GBR James Royston 24pts
6th GBR Alex Stothert 42pts

Other GBR:

11th Stuart Adams
14th Ben Paton
20th Dan Belben
22nd Ali Young
23rd John Beatty