Two years of European Circuit are behind us. Like any innovation, it was a challenging attempt to breathe new life into our class. We had the following goals:
- challenging races
- for all our different sailors
- in a friendly community
- and open to all boat designs.
In my opinion, this attempt was a huge successWe had 14 participants from 345 European countries in 11 regattas. The boats sailed were Super3, Norlin Mk III, Stradivari, Norlin OD, and David Hollom Design.
None of these designs was superior to the others. On the contrary, each one sailed to the top in one regatta or another. This confirms the often-expressed view:
It's not about the man or woman at the drawing board or computer, but about the man or woman at the helm. This is different in our design class than, for example, the 5.5, but it saves us money.
The Program after sailing is one of the outstanding features of the European Circuit. Here, the individual clubs set very different standards, for example
- Through a dinner hosted by the participants, where everyone brought something from their home country and thus a wonderful buffet was created.
- Or by awarding Daily pricesthat were pulled from a drum.
- Or a speech, which reviewed 10 years of regatta with all its highlights.
- Or by awarding the first participation at a regatta.
- Or the most consistent sailor a regatta with only last places.
- Or a spontaneous polonaise the participants.
- Or a special Welcome on the shore with bread and beer.
- Or a Quizz with questions about sailing.
- Or a special Thanks to all helpers on water or on land.
- Or with individual music, to which each participant was introduced at the welcome evening.
On the one hand, the program created a strong sense of community among the participants after sailing, and on the other hand, there was also a very relaxed atmosphere in the evening, in which everyone suddenly sang along, individual participants started dancing, or led a polonaise through the hall.
That the European Circuit The number of visits to the website shows that it is of great interest far beyond active participation in regattas www.2point4.eu. In the two years we had 68.000 visits with a total of 180.000 page views. The trend is increasing, not only in the participating countries in Europe, but worldwide.
Two new terms this year reflect very well what we want and what we are:
Ben van Cauwenbergh said succinctly: “Serious sailing and serious fun.” And Andreas Greufe spoke of the “Action4Europe-Family." That's it!
We are therefore encouraged in every way to European Circuit To continue in 2025. If you've smelled a rat, you should simply take part in one or two regattas.
Until then: Stay healthy (or get healthy).