2019 European Championships, Lac Biel, Switzerland
The Swiss D-One fleet hosted this championship in the hamlet of Wingreis in the far west of the country, on a grassy meadow by the stunning lake with a view across vineyards to the snow-covered Alps. The Swiss watch-making capital of Biel, three miles up the road, provided enough hotels, bars, restaurants and expensive watches for anyone.
The event started with a break from tradition - no T shirt! Instead we were given a D-One Swiss (not army) multi knife. No complaints there.
As expected The Swiss were great hosts : Barbecued sausages each lunchtime, wine tasting, historic tour and two great evening meals with plenty of boxer old beer and strangely addictive local milk protein soft drink Rivella -all first class.
Yacht Club Bielersee have a lovely little club and an amazingly helpful group of volunteers in a great setting but also, as feared, a slight absence of wind.
We did manage to get out for some practice racing before the main event, so a chance to check we had all rigged our boats correctly.
On Friday we gathered at the club and..no wind. OK a postponement, no problem the sun is shining more boat fine tuning. I made a nice uv cover for the pole with recycled water bottles and duct tape and made some small adjustments hoping to get s little more power in the expected light breeze. Just when we thought there would be no racing for the day enough breeze appeared to get us out for one light airs race. Sadly my tuning efforts resulted in no pointing and no speed. Glad we just had one race.
Read more: 2019 European Championships, Lac Biel, Switzerland
2019 Gold Cup Competitor Analysis
Since the D-One was launched 10 years ago, it has been sailed in a huge variety of conditions, from calm alpine lakes to full-on sea sailing, and by all shapes and sizes of competitor. We are fortunate to have a very wide base of friendly international sailors.
The boat has always had a fairly crude form of weight equalisation, whereby sailors below 86kg are allowed slightly wider wings. As with all classes, there has been occasional discussion as to whether this is adequate. We were fortunate at the Gold Cup this year to have very clearly defined windy and light days, and a full international fleet weighed in for the event. This gave a perfect opportunity to crunch the numbers, as shown in the graph, which reads from first to last place left to right.
D-One Events for 2020
Thank you to everyone who sailed and organised events in 2019
We had a very multi-national Gold Cup in France, with a great deal of wind to start, and then a lot less. The French lost at 'boules' to the Italian-Czech team, which amused everyone else, but put on on a great event with much champagne.
The Italian Nationals at beautiful Rapallo allowed a great group of new Italian sailors to find out much fun a D-One can be in a tempest, while the British fleet travelled to South Shields for some equally awesome, if rather terrifying, big wave sailing in the North Sea. The Austrian fleet continued to grow and enjoyed close racing on their beautiful lakes.
The European Championships in Switzerland ended the season wonderfully hosted in a stunning location, and maybe the light winds were overdue for the fleet to enjoy some more peaceful sailing.
We are delighted to unite the growing British, French and Swiss fleets with a continuing strength in Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as our very good friends travelling from Hungary, Belgium and occasionally Germany. It is now likely that every major D-One event will have visitors from many European countries, and it was wonderful to join such a friendly circuit in such great places.
...so here is the Calendar for 2020 ( see sidebar --->> )
We have put together a fantastic set of events for 2020. We have ensured that they do not clash dates, and there are some very tempting possibe groups of dates for those who fancy a proper holiday around their sailing. Click 'Read More' for details of the 2020 circuit of events:
Palamos Europeans - Cancelled
I have just spoken to Stefan Hess, in lockdown in his apartment at Palamos, and we feel we have no choice and have to cancel the European Championship at the end of April.
With governments in Spain, France, Italy, UK and Czech Republic all advising against travel at the moment due to coronavirus, it seems very unlikely that a satisfactory event could occur in April.
We have decided to cancel instead of postpone, not only because the picture in so uncertain, but also because we still have our Gold Cup scheduled at Lake Lipno in September, and we must all hope that in better circumstances this will be able to go ahead.
We very much hope to organise an event in Palamos in our schedule in 2021, since without a doubt it is a fabulous sailing venue - as was proved by the winter training sessions. Thank you to Stefan and Carles for putting all the effort in to organising what promised to be a great event. We hope they will do so again.
Obviously, everyone who has paid to enter will be refunded by the club. Details will be sent by the club.
Our real sympathies go to those who are having much more serious problems than this. In the meantime, if you can, head off and go sailing - you have a great single-handed and can stay on the water away from everyone else.
Best wishes to all
GBR: 2019 National Championships
South Shields Sailing Club, 9th – 11th August
Supported by Rooster & Diamond Drilling Ltd
Prologue: Before any major D-One event there is always something that sets the tone for the weekend, bizarrely it appears to always come from the same person. The tone for this event soon became apparent on the training day (8th August). The post goes out “the camper has failed (again)”.
Many offers of support were provided by the ever friendly D-One sailors and with the poorly camper safely ensconced in a nearby garage the wayward sailor once again began his journey with the knowledge that alternative accommodation had kindly been provided by local lad Ken Ward.
Several hours later and whilst the normal greetings were being had there was an almighty shriek I’ve got no clothes”! Answers on a postcard please stating where you think they were…. you may win a camper! A quick trip to a local store and several t-shirt purchases (albeit a little snug in great colours) later, a must have trip to the curry mile was much needed and appreciated by those that chose to partake. As you can imagine the training session was not high on the agenda.
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