2010 REVIEW 2011 PREVIEW - International Dragon Association

Balaton, the largest surface lakein Central Europe proved to allparticipants of the Dragon Europeansin Hungary last June,that she is a female one. Morethan 40 Dragoneers comingfrom all over Europe from Cornwallto Moscow, from Denmarkto Switzerland and even fromthe United States experiencedthat Balaton can display a hundredfaces. Just like a woman.She began her flirtationwith the Dragon fleet showinga light air on June 1st, the firstday of the the Hungarian Championship,the tune up for theEuropeans. 39 Dragons madeuse of the possiblity to learn thevenue, a fleet that a HungarianChampionship had never seenbefore. The first race had to beabandoned because the windhad been slowing down to 3knots. After the second starta northerly breeze of about 6knots made the first race possible.In a shortened race theRussian boat with helmsmanAnatoly Mikhaylin adapted thebest to the varying conditionsand won the race. The secondrace was started at 4 pm whenPRO Gert Schmidleitner andlocal race officer Farkas Litkeysent the fleet out in a Northerlybreeze of 10 to 12 knots.After two races, the Germanboat with Dirk Oldenburg,1972Olympic medaillist Ulli Liborand Uwe Mares led in front ofVinciee Hoesch, the most experienced’Balaton-expert’ amongthe top Dragon sailors who hadwon the Hungarian Championship2008 and 2009 in the samevenue.Yes, the venue: Balatonkenese,a tiny town on the Easternshore of Balaton which madehuge efforts to accomodate theInternational Dragon fleet. TheirPage 8Rendez-vousin the Heartof Europeby Vilmos NarayEuropean ChampionshipBalatonkenese, Hungary.host, Kenese Marina-Port proved to be a superb facility: a completepier for 70 Dragons had been made empty to accommodate theDragons. Craning went smoothly, there has been plenty of parkingplaces and those who chose Hotel Marina-Port to be accomodated,made a right decision: they were separated only 100 metresfrom their boats.Günter Ahlers, the Chief Measurer and his aide, Bence Toronyimade all possible efforts to get the measurement checks runningsmoothly. The Race Office, led by PRO Gert Schmiedleitner andChief Organizer Vilmos Náray spoke every language from Russianto German and English and worked all around the clock to solveevery possible unique problem and to fulfil all wishes.Back to sailing: the third and fourth race of the HungarianChampionship saw a reduced fleet after Balaton turned to showher angry face: a Northerly breeze gusting up to 30 knots with anaverage of 25 knots welcomedthe participants on Fridaymorning. The unpleasant choppywater and the gusting roughconditions were mastered bestby the Russian boat with AnatoliyMikhailin at the helm. Theywere leading after four races, 15points ahead of Vincie Hoeschwhose mast bent in the firstrace of the day. At this point noone could have thought thatthe next week will never bringNortherly winds any more.On Saturday Balaton cameback with a light-wind 5thrace. At about 11.00 a.m. GertSchmidleitner sent the field offin a light, 6-7 knots West-North-West which slowed down to4 knots after 1.5 hrs. The rightdecision was to shorten, so thefield finished after the seconddownwind leg. Vincie succeededin getting around FRA 323in the last leg and won the racewhich ensured him his thirdback-to-back Hungarian Championtitle. Two points behindVincie the second place wentto RUS 27, Anatoly Mikhailin,Andrey Kirilyuk and AlexanderShalagin. They mastered thesecond day’s heavy wind verywell and sailed – even in theabsence of their helmsmanAnatoly Loginov – a fantasticrace. Third place went to GER1014 with Dirk Oldenburg, UweMares and Ulli Libor who saileda perfect first day.The Championship finishedwith a ‘fun’ race, where theguests of Erste Pivate Banking,the major sponsor of the tworegattas and the HungarianDragon fleet, were taken onboard of 16 dragons and saileda short light-wind course. Theluckiest bank client was sailingwith Vincie’s team who finishedeven in this race first again. As