Hansa European Championships 2024 at Royal Yacht Club Sneek, Netherlands
by David Durston 27 Sep 03:50 NZST
14-21 September 2024
The Hansa European Championships 2024 took place on 14-21 September at the Royal Yacht Club in Sneek, the Netherlands.
Teams from across Europe and further afield, including Chile and Korea, congregated at this fantastic venue to compete in this prestigious event. The hosts put on an incredible show for the opening which saw flag bearers from each Nation arrive by boat, accompanied by a brass band. The social programme over the week included a Nations night; a whisky tasting; a Indonesian buffet, and of course a spectacular prize-giving and closing ceremony. Everything was well attended and enjoyed by all.
A team of 18 boats were entered to represent GB across the three fleets: the Liberty; Hansa 303 one-person; and Hansa 303 two-person. Following two practice races on Sunday, it was down to business on the Monday for the start of six days of racing. The weather gods did a great job in providing a dry, warm, windy week, with a range of strengths and water states; something for everyone.
The Hansa 303 one-person fleet started proceedings. The 41 entries were divided into four groups for qualifying for the final over six races; the top 21 would then battle it out as the gold fleet over the final three races. GB had 8 entries in the class, three of whom qualified for the gold fleet: Rory McKinna; Mike Everitt; and Hannah Nicoll. Rory finished a frustrating fourth, with the victor coming from Spain: Alenjandro Solera. In the silver fleet GB had great success with James Woosnam taking third place on the podium.
Libertys headed out in the afternoon to start their nine race series. GB had five contenders in this fleet of 17. After the first five races it became a two horse race between Vera Vorbach, the champion from 2019, and Paul Phillips from GB. For the final race Vera needed a first place to retain her title, but Paul did just enough to impede her downwind. Gerard Beens, also from the Netherlands, capitalized on a perfect start to deny her the victory, making Paul Phillips champion. Gerard's first place unfortunately relegated GB's David Durston from a podium place to fourth.
The Hansa 303 two-person fleet included five boats from team GB in the 22 boat fleet, although Rory McKinna had paired up with a Swiss competitor for the event. This event was dominated by the team from Poland, Piotr Cichocki and Olga Goma S-Grudzien, who finished 9 points ahead of their nearest rivals. They celebrated with champagne on the finish line. Rory finished a respectable fifth.
A full set of results can be found at hansaregionals.org/results-european
Also there are fantastic pictures taken by Eize Hoekstra here: www.facebook.com/KWSSneek
It was quite an achievement to orchestrate getting 20 sailors and 14 boats to the Netherlands. We are very grateful to the 19 volunteers who made this possible, and also to the support provided by RYA Sailability for this, and for the pre-event training that took place at the WPNSA earlier in the month. The coaching provided by Brett Cokayne and Chris Hargreaves at the event and Alan Hillman in training, proved to be highly effective.
Well done to all the sailors who took part, and a massive thank you to all the volunteers who made it possible.
If you're interested in joining a great team, either as a sailor or a volunteer, please contact David Durston: