165 sailors at first big event

CESM in Corsica held their first ever big championship, the European Laser Masters Championship in September

The European Laser Masters Championship was held in Saint Florent, North Corsica and the hosting club was CESM Saint Florent.

For those in the know, it may have seemed a disastrous choice of venue by AFL, the French Laser Class Association: just think of it, CESM is NOT a proper yacht club, and is as from 1953 on an efficient sailing school, but CESM St Florent had never ever organized a big regatta .

The 2008 edition of the European Laser Masters Championship saw a record number of pre registrations (Up to 220) and even with those changing their minds, a record - breaking number of entries 165 sailors from 17 countries.

Sailors were divided into two Fleets (Standard and Radial) and four categories of age (Apprentices 35-45, Masters 45-55, Grand Masters 55-65 and Great Grand Masters 66+) plus a womens event. It took that kind of group division to accommodate everybody on just one big trapezoidal course in the middle of the beautiful gulf of St Florent.

With the well known laser sailors' taste for competitive racing and after sailing socialising, the logistics for a 150 plus competition involving four social events in a week was formidable for a beachfront sailing school…but still it was done and quite satisfactorily.

The first week of September had been the perfect St Florent summer weather: Thermic breeze starting at 9.30 or 10am, reaching ten to 12 knots at two o'clock and decreasing steadily to die by six o'clock, regular as clockwork.

This kind of weather had blessed the good number of Laser sailors that had come a week in advance of the event for training. Unfortunately, for the racing it was a different story, as the second week of September marked the weather change from 'full summer mode' to 'beginning of fall mode', meaning the advent of occasional easterlies or strikes of Libeccio, a local south westerly wind, which is a local name for a variant of the Mistral (normally a northern cold wind blowing through the Rhône valley and over Marseilles, but turning into a westerly or even south westerly wind, when it reaches the atmospheric low prevailing on the gulf of Genova.)

After the registration and measurement process on Saturday and Sunday morning, it was time for the practice race. A medium strong Libeccio plus half cloudy sky, gradually clearing meant wind from three different directions prevailing in turn. The sailors could plane, hike, even capsize, but with the wind shiifting through 60° plus, it was impossible to set a proper trapezoid course.

Monday morning dawned and what was left of the Libeccio had somewhat veered north, and joined forces with the thermic wind, giving a good ten to 15 knots of breeze combined with a choppy sea.

Two races were held and the leading guys already showed their potential: ex Olympic campaigner, Xavier Leclair (FRA) scored two bullets in the Apprentice standard fleet. Mr Rooster (Steve Cockerill GBR) did the same in the Master group and ex Finn Gold Cup Winner Wofgang Gerz (GER) won the Grand Master group.

Among the Radial fleets there were two bullets for Alessio Marinelli (ITA Apprentice) as well as for Jacky Nebrel (FRA) in the Great Grand Master category. It was also a strong showing from Wilmar Gronendijik (NED Master) while things were less definite in the Grand Masters category, Beatrix Fontius (NED) took the lead in the women's Radial event.

Tuesday saw a return to thermic conditions with flat sea but the wind was rather light (no more than eight knots). During the day some new faces were seen at the front of the various fleets such as Lesley Hotchin (GBR Women) and Henk Wittenberg (NED Radial Grand Master) Mario Orlich from Cagliari in Sardinia (Standard Grand Master) went on a perfectly regular string of good scores

Wednsday and Thursday dawned with sun and splendid Mediterranean warm water but sadly no wind. All in all this was a particularly frustrating situation as only 30km away a 20 knot East to Southeast wind was blowing on the eastern shore of Cap Corse. The race committee tried hard to lay a racecourse but to no avail, it was sun tan for everybody and back ashore early to taste Corsican food and wines either at CESM or in the local restaurants.

Friday seemed to start with the same light winds as the previous days, a nailbiting situation for the organizers, but somehow the thermic northerly prevailed (timidly at first the womens race had to be shortened). After a half hour of calm it started again and steadily picked up allowing three races to be run in a succession of 12 starts.

There were a good number of general recalls and frequent use of black flag by Chief Race Officer, Jean-Pierre Manettstatter who wanted to cram as many starts as he could on the last full day of racing as there was an impending gale warning for Saturday. Another concern for the race committee was a huge black thunderstorm cloud building over the mountains surrounding the bay.

At the start of race six the thunder began to roar and distant flashes became more frequent and finally when everybody was ashore and enjoying the Corsican food tasting the deluge started for good. The electricity mains were cut for more than two hours which didn't help those in charge of the computers and results, but nobody seemed to care as there were ample supplies of Coppa, Lonzu, Corsican cheese, local chestnut flavored Pietra (the local beer) and Patrimonio wine.

Ian Jones (GBR) scored three bullets in the Apprentice Radial group but failed to dislodge Alessio Marinelli (ITA) from first place overall. Beatrix Fontius (NED) even with a BFD in race five consolidated her overall first position in the Women's group.

Peter Dietmuller (GER) scored a good string of races with two seconds and a first enough to hand him the lead over Nebrel in the Great Grand Master Radial group despite Nebrel's first place in the sixth race.

Wilmar Gronendijik (NED), Xavier Leclair (FRA) and Wofgang Gerz (GER), consolidated their overal first positions by scoring consistent results and Steve Cockerill (GBR) scored an impressive string of three more bullets.

Saturday morning saw a gale warning forecast and the chief race officer choose to call it quits. As the wind hadn’t arrived yet some sailors showed disappointment. However,
it was not long held as the wind came in with a bang (the usual way for the Libeccio, once it has overcome the barrier of hills and mountains on the West side of the gulf.) A few sailors chose to display their skills and made impressive runs. On the usual racecourse zone, wind gusts were over 35 knots in short bursts separated by semi calm intervals the wind going as far down as eight or ten knots. This is the usual situation when a turbulent wind blows over a mountainous zone split by many valleys, needles to say wind direction was also quite erratic.

Then it was time for drinks and goodbyes, but not quite the return home for a good number of laser sailors who left their boats and road trailers at CESM and started a sightseeing tour of Corsica.