You are here: okdia.org > reports & results > euro 2003

European Championship 2003

Warnemünde, Germany

To Results

Pictures are in the Pictures gallery.

08 - 13 July

This Europeans was sailed from wednesday to sunday, as is was part of the Warnemünde Week.
Except one day, the Regatta was dominated by mid to strong winds and nice waves.

Wind, Waves, (Women) : WARNEMÜNDE!
Or the whole truth about the EC 2003...

by Bart Bomans

The first major championship for the OK class ‘new style’ saw the further carbonisation of the OK fleet: After Haltern and Madine, where carbonmast sailors had felt a bit guilty for bringing a new mast now about 50% of the fleet were sporting magic black sticks from all different builders.

Thomas (the President) had recovered from a poor result at Kiel Week to convincingly win Warnemunde Woche with his newly acquired WB sail. At least 6 months of hard work for developing and testing had gone into the hands of the concurrents in only 1 week!!

But let’s start with the beginning: Tuesday: Measurement!
51 boats were measured and declared as being OK-dinghies (sometimes after some work) in only one day! Cool. Most attention went to the new masts of course, although glueing a pencil on the top of a sail to turn it into an OK sail was also fun (thanks Charlie!)

Wednesday & race 1:
A steady force 4 was waiting us on course Alpha. Wind & waves for powersailors! The new British secret weapon – Jim Hunt - seemed to work well in these conditions, showing very agressive & good upwind speed to take the gun in his first international race. Promising for GBR & frightening for the rest of us.

Thursday & races 2-3:
Force 4-5 on course Bravo this time, where there seemed to be a little less tide but even bigger waves. For me this was just ‘one of those days’. Finally getting over the initial nerves and scoring 2 bullets, just ahead of the great Dane.

Friday & race 4:
Strange day of racing. In an ever decreasing wind only 13 boats made the cruel time limit set by featherweight Juliane Hofmann. Even 5 of the final top 10 were made to blush. Some others (Jim, Neil & me) showed a lack of card reading ability when they wrongly rounded the wing mark of the adjacent course Charlie. Probably Juliane’s sudden performance jump had something to do with the Kiwi ‘input’ she had received before

Saturday & races 5-6:
Why are the 2 race-days always the windiest? When Jan-Dietmar shows up at the front at the first mark one does not need to say more Although the force 5-6 + huge waves did even wear him out during the 2nd race of the day. Where sailors of all other classes had an early night after such intense efforts – some OK sailors got challenged to demonstrate their huge physical abilities and show off their impressive bodies in the basement of Hotel Neptun. This was where the third characteristic of Warnemunde was put to the forefront (+49177287... – wow; I didn’t know one could have piercings on that spot as well ).

Sunday & race 7:
We woke up to be confronted once again by the same monotonous weather pattern: Northwesterly winds, sunshine and blue skies. First place was decided already, but 3 boats (Jim, Jørgen and Thomas) were going to fight it out for 2nd and 3rd. After a very intense race where just like the days before downwind speed showed to be desicive Thomas got the silver medal and Jørgen the bronze. Jim had to settle for fourth, but has unmistakably made his intentions clear for next years Worlds in Parkstone – GBR.

 
Plc.SailnoNameR1R2R3R4R5R6R7TotMast
1BEL 44Bart Bomans31131116C
2SWE 2746Thomas Hansson-Mild2431234218C
3DEN 1280Jørgen Lindhartsen422DNF62319C
4GBR 2109Jim Hunt154653422C
5POL 14Pawel Pawlaczyk537DNF86635C
6NZL 522Greg Wilcox78577DNC539C
7GER 717Oliver Gronholz1268DNF2101149A
8GBR 2101Terry Curtis61010DNF98851C
9DEN 1324Jesper Petersen876DNF177954C
10SWE 99Hans Elkjaer13131221291058C
11GER 693Martin von Zimmermann10991014162868C
12GER 724Jan-Dietmar Dellas161213DNF4122279A
13GBR 2045Will Turner211623910111885C
14DEN 1304Christian Midtgaard141111DNFDNC57100C/A
15GER 718Peter Scheuerl111717DNF111529100A
16GER 632Fabian Gronholz182216DNF162013105A
17GBR 2085Gavin Waldron192615DNF131320106C
18GBR 2083Andy Turner23182013DNC2119114C
19GER 665Peter Stephan291419DNF152317117A
20GER 449Sönke Behrends222014DNF191730122C
21GER 670Hinnerk Ries92428DNF212616124A
22GBR 2081Robert Deaves2735298241921128A
23GER 539Carsten Saß252326DNF181424130A
24GBR 2108Neil Goodhead2828334232535141A
25DEN 1303John Texas Petersen242518DNF282226143A
26POL 65Janusz Stobinski202727DNF272427152A
27GBR 2007Anthony Rich35383511292831169A
28DEN 1322Ivan Boris Petersen171522DNFDNCDNC15173C
29GER 624Thomas Glas152124DNFDNCDNC12176A
30SWE 2752Ingemar Janson363632DNF252732188C
31GER 698Karsten Kath261921DNFDNCDNC25195C
32GBR 2067Jonathan Fish30DNFDNCDNF261823201A
33GER 725Christian Hartmann313025DNFDNCDNC14204C
34GER 695Dirk Gericke403234DSQ20DNC33211A
35GER 570Christian Senst343436DNF22DNC34212A
36SWE 2750Jonas Lindahl3731375DNCDNCDNC214C
37GER 694Gunnar Specht414539DNF313038224A
38GER 640Sven Marchot504442DNF322941238A
39GER 645Arne Lindemann32DNF38DSQ30DNC36240A
40GER 699Juliane Hofmann42DNFDNC1DNCDNCDNC251A
41SWE 2756Per Jaensson382930DNFDNCDNCDNC253C
42GER 621André Hennings333331DNFDNCDNCDNC253A
43GER 651Heinz Ridder393740DNFDNCDNC37257A
44BEL 214Paul Verrijdt454141DNFDNCDNC39270A
45GER 630Norbert Petrausch494243DNFDNCDNC40278A
46DEN 1319Peter West4439DNCDNFDNCDNCDNC291A
47GER 606Katharina Pape4340DNCDNFDNCDNCDNF291A
48GER 607Christian Heinze4643DNCDNFDNCDNCDNC297A
49DEN 1159Michael Ostergard4746DNCDNFDNCDNCDNC301A
50GER 696Jürgen Dieris5147DNCDNFDNCDNCDNC306A
51GER 710Dieter Senst48DNFDNCDNFDNCDNCDNC308C