Controversy reigns

A protest on the final day made the Soling European Championships a controversial affair

Friday had clear skies for the first time at the 2007 APL Soling European Championship, the wind came in slowly from the South west, with two general recalls, the race started with seven knots of wind, SLO1 with Bostjan Antoncic, Gennadi Skrath and Sergey Pichuguin took an early lead over T-mobile team HUN 77 with George Wossala, Karoly Vezer and Peter Nemeth. But the wind almost died at the bottom mark and boats had to face a current of not less of two knots making it really difficult to round the marks.

On the second beat the wind came from the left but there was no real advantage to the teams who tacked looking for more wind, since the current was dragging the boats to the windward mark, most of them over stood. Unfortunately the wind change came when the first boat rodunded the mark making a course change by the PRO impossible untill the third beat.

The championship finished in great style, with surfing conditions with big waves and a nice south west breeze with 14 to 15 knots. It was a fight in between SLO 1, GER 304 and ARG 32(Team Edding) who were back in the fleet. ITA 198 with Andy Vincon, Thomas Oldbrich, Peter Dorsch achieved a good result now fighting for a place on the podium. At the beginning of the race when the Italians observed, a helmsman change during the race on SLO1. They won the protest taking the victory from SLO 1 hands. The crew / helmsman substitution in the Soling is possible but jury permission is requested.

GER 304 then became the European Champion, and team Edding climbed into second. ITA 198 team BMS achieved the third place at the APL Europeans, SLO1 finish fourth, followed by T-mobile team and the dutch team NED 33 Rudy den Outer, Leo Determan and Ronald den Arend finish sixth.

Ten boats sailed the classic category for boats built before January 1st of 1980 and the winner was ITA 198 who also finished third overall, the second was the Italian boat 201 with Michele Tognozzi, Giuliano Carotti and Andrea Maramai, in third position was USA 807 with Matias Collins, Pablo Noceti and Pontus Berglund.

A prizing giving ceremony was held in a crowded tent, with great faces of satisfaction. Jan Kirkedam, the man behind the scenes was cheered witha extra big champagne bottle, and together witht the event sponsors APL and HANDELSBANK where already drawing the bid for the 2011 World Championship in the Soling class with the intention to bring up 100 boats from as many nations as possible.

Results:

Pos	Sail Number	Helm	Middle	Bow		R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	Points
1	GER 304	Thomas Maschkiwitz	Christian Oehler	Christoph Wossala		2	6	3	4	5	1	7	7	7	35
2	ARG 32	Gustavo Warburg	Maximo Smith	Miguel Lacour		3	3	13	1	7	2	5	4	14	38
3	ITA 198	Andreas Vincon	Thomas Olbrich	Peter Dörsch		7	5	12	10	3	4	6	5	5	45
4	SLO 1	Bostjan Antoncic	Sergej Pichugin	Gennadi Strakh		9	4	2	18	6	6	4	1	DSQ	50
5	HUN 77	George Wossala	Karoly Vezer	Nemeth Peter		6	OCS	9	2	9	16	2	9	2	55
6	NED 33	Rudy den Outer	Leo Determan	Ronald den Arend		13	16	1	5	2	19	8	12	6	63
7	NED 25	Johan Offermans	Bas Dusee	Oliver Dusee		8	7	8	9	20	14	10	14	3	73
8	GER 49	Holger Weichert	Laurent Scheel	Martin Setzkorn		5	1	15	17	23	12	12	10	13	85
9	GER 300	Roman Koch	Maxl Koch	Gregor Bornemann		1	OCS	21	7	1	DSQ	1	2	1	87
10	NOR 128	Preben Asbjørnrød	Richard Fikse	Hans Jorgen Husum		15	2	20	16	18	8	23	6	4	89