European travel

Team GBR hit the road

Beginning 7 August 2005, RYA Team GBR will be taking to waters across the continent to challenge Europe’s top sailors for the title of European Champion. With six Olympic Class European Championships taking place in the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, Star, Tornado and the 49er, it will be a busy week for many of the sailors.

These events will showcase some of Britain’s top sailing talent including some experienced Olympic Athletes and some fresh, young, up and coming stars. After winning Bronze in last summer’s Olympic Games, Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks, are intent to prove they can achieve gold and will sights their sights on pole position at the 49er European Championships in Copenhagen. Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes, RYA Performance Squad members, have had a run of top ten finishes so far this year and will be hungry for a good finish at this event.

Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie will once again step into his Finn at the European Championships in Kalmar, Sweden. Ainslie has been keeping a busy schedule and seems to be successfully balancing both his Olympic Class sailing and his America’s Cup Team New Zealand commitments. Winning a Gold medal at the Holland Regatta in May, Ainslie is the one to beat out on the water. Joining Ainslie are five other British sailors, including Chris Brittle and Ed Wright who have both been sailing well so far this season.

Fourteen British sailors will head to Cartogena, Spain for the Laser European Championships. After proving he is a fierce competitor by taking first place at Kiel Week, Athens Olympian Paul Goodison will return to the race course and fight to finish in the top five. Other sailors to watch are the up and coming Nick Thompson who at nineteen has only recently started competing on a senior Olympic level and Giles Scott who just weeks ago took the title of 2005 ISAF Youth World Champion in Busan, Korea.

Racing in the 2005 Laser Radial European Championships will be held in Croatia. RYA Team GBR member and Athens Olympian Laura Baldwin along with eleven other British sailors will be competing in Split. London based Lizzie Vickers has spent the season getting back into her Laser Radial. Finishing second at the Holland Regatta and now ranked third in the world in the Laser Radial, Vickers will be a tough competitor at this event. Also attending the event is eighteen year old Charlotte Dobson who is certainly one we will see more of the in future. With a string of strong finishes at Olympic Class Events, Dobson has made her presence known in the Olympic circuit.

Receiving a silver medal at the Tornado World Championship in June, Leigh McMillan and Will Howden are back to compete for the title of European Tornado Champion in Vastervik, Sweden [read the preview here]. Also representing Team GBR are youngsters Andrew Walsh and Ed Barney who won the RYA Olympic Classes National Ranking Series in the Tornado in May. Walsh and Barney continue to sail on both the Olympic and on the junior levels and are future Olympic hopefuls.

While they have spent much of the season away, Olympic sailors Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell will sail on European waters in the Star for the first time this season and compete in European Championships. Placing third at the Star World Championships in June, this dynamic team along with team mates Andy Beadsworth and David Carr will sail hard in the quest to bring home some medals for Team GBR.

7-12 August, Laser European Championship, Cartogena Spain; http://www.cartagena2005.com
7-12 August, Laser Radial European Championship, Split, Croatia; http://www.euroradial2005.com
7-13 August, Tornado European Championship, Vastervik, Sweden; http://www.multihullsweden.com
8-12 August, Star European Championship, Varberg, Sweden; http://www.vss.org.se/em/index.htm
9-14 August, Finn European Championship, Kalmar, Sweden;
http://www.eurofinn2005.org
8-14 August, 49er European Championship, Copenhagen, Denmark; http://www.vallensbaek-sejlklub.dk/VSK2/artikel.asp?id=36&style=EM2005