5th Annual Vassiliki Watersports Festival

While Greece may be experiencing difficult times at present the Gods surely shone on the small village of Vassiliki on the island of Lefkas with the best possible conditions for all sorts of racing at one of Europe’s premier sailing and windsurfing locations.

After an excellent beach BBQ and live performance from UK band ‘Wizard Sleeve’ at the main sponsor’s party (Wildwind Holidays) the competition real kicked off with the windsurfing slalom event held with wind speeds between 25 and 35 kts, perfect conditions to get the best out of the 38 entrants from 11 different countries.

3 races were held with EFPT regular Colin Dixon taking three bullets ahead of veteran Andy Barnes and Alastair Nichol in third. First non-British result was Nikos Kavadias of Greece in 5th, having broken his boom in the first race and ruined his chances.

Thursday was the Long Distance catamaran race, a 20 mile course around the uninhabited island of Arkoudi and back into Vassiliki bay. 16 cats entered the race which started with a Force 2-3 beat out of the bay and into an ever increasing Maistrali first downwind to Arkoudi and increasing to a Force 5 for the upwind track home.

Joe Bennett and Marko Reynolds (GBR) on a Tornado with Stratos Kosmoglou and Stella Theofanidi on a Hobie 16(GRE) were the first to find the new breeze and got away from the rest of the fleet, the Tiger finally taking just under two hours to complete the course with Stratos’ Hobie 16,22 minutes behind narrowly missing out on first place on handicap.In third place came Edoardo Zandri (IT) and Jon Thalen (SWE) on a Tiger.

Friday was the final day of racing at the Festival with 4 races sailed across 5 classes (Laser, Laser Radial, Laser 4.7, Open Catamaran and Yacht) in beautiful Vassiliki bay, again with perfect conditions; 2 races sailed in an on-shore Force 2 before the famous Vassiliki cross-shore cut in at about 2pm as normal and gave the competitors a real blast around the bay with 2 more races in Force 5-6.

The Bennett/Reynolds team finished first again, albeit by a smaller margin than anticipated to former RYA Youth team sailor Drew Tayler crewed by Claire Hindley (GBR) and in third the excellent and consistent Kosmoglou/ Theofanidi team from Greece’s second city of Thessaloniki.

As National Greek Sport Radio had been broadcasting live twice a day from Vassiliki’s town hall for the previous 3 days it was no surprise that the harbour was full in the evening for the prize-giving presentation which was preceded by a dancing group from the town of Karya, formerly the capital of the island and renowned for its traditional lace-making and pursuits.

What was a massive surprise to everybody in the audience was the appearance at the prize-giving ceremony of the most famous Greek athlete, Olympic Gold medallist Nikos Kaklamanakis, on the video screen with a live broadcast from his home in Crete where his wife very recently gave birth to a baby daughter. After the live audience ‘shouted’ Na sas zeisei to moro’, (May your baby live long for you!) Nikos Kaklamanakis gave his regards to the organisers of the event and shared his memories of his time in Vassiliki some years ago.

Then the results of the final days sailing races were announced as shown below and prizes awarded by local dignatories and Festival organisers – followed by the very excellent UK funk/rock band ‘Wizard Sleeve’ playing on stage until the early hours.

While the winners of most of the classes were from Great Britain (unsurprising given Britain’s success at recent Olympic and World Championship competitions and the level of support offered by the UK’s Royal Yachting Association there were some excellent Greek results as well particularly with:

• Nikos Kavadias (Lefkas) finishing 5 in the windsurf slalom having broken his boom in the first race otherwise he would have been 2 overall.
• Stratos Kosmoglou (Navtikos Omilou Akti Thermaikou) & STELLA THERMAIKOU (I.O.Kavalas - Dimou Pangeou) finishing 2 on catamaran Long Distance Race and 3 overall in the course racing.
• Leo Clark Lens – (Navtikos Omilos Lefkados) 1 Youth in the Laser 4.7 competition and 5 overall on handicap.

At the conclusion of the event, main organiser Simon Morgan (who has lived in Lefkas for 24 years now) said, “Despite the obvious difficulties in Greece at this moment in time the fact that we have been able to run such an excellent Festival this year is evidence of the results that can be achieved even in adversity if a number of dedicated people are committed to achieving great results. This year the Festival has received support from the new island council, from the Regional Council of the Ionian islands, the local Chamber of Commerce, and from many too many sponsors to be mentioned but as anyone knows who has ever organised such an event the real work is done by the volunteers who give their time to make sure everything happens and I would like to wish everyone who helped in any way my sincere thanks. And, of course, we are already planning the 6th annual Vassiliki Watersports Festival for next year.”

Overall Results:

Catamaran Class
20 entries from UK, GREECE, ITALY, GERMANY, HOLLAND, AUSTRIA, SWEDEN, AUSTRALIA, EIRE

1st Joe Bennett & Marko Reynolds, GBR 4pts
2nd Drew Tayler & Clare Hindley, GBR 6pts
3rd Stratos Kosmogou & Stella Theofanidi, GRE 8pts
4th Andy Barnes & Rachel Fryer, GBR 10pts
5th Simon Barker & Mark Down, GBR 13pts

Laser Class
18 entries from UK, Greece, Australia, Italy, Eire, Germany, Sweden

1st Rob Spencer, GBR 4pts
2nd Rob Partridge, GBR 7pts
3rd John Randal, GBR 9pts
4th Ali Nichol, GBR 9pts
5th Leo Clark Lens, GRE 12pts
1st Woman, Laser Radial, Claire Bryan, AUS
1st Youth, Laser 4.7, Leo Clark Lens, GRE

Yacht Class

1st TOUAREG, SB3, STEFANO LOCCI, ITALY
2nd JUNGLE, J24, MIKE JONES, GBR
3rd DJ, J24, LES CARVALL, GBR

Catamaran Long Distance Race
16 CATAMARANS FROM UK, GREECE, ITALY, GERMANY, HOLLAND, AUSTRIA, SWEDEN, AUSTRALIA

1st JOE BENNETT & MARKO REYNOLDS, GBR
2nd STRATOS KOSMOGLOU & STELLA THEOFANIDI, GRE
3rd EDUARDO ZANDRI (ITALY) & JON THALEN, SWE
4th HORST HERMANN (GER) & MARCUS PICHLER, AUS
5th STEVE AND ANDREW WESTERN, GBR

Windsurf Slalom
38 entries from - UK, GREECE, FRANCE, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, SLOVENIA, GERMANY, ITALY, HUNGARY, SWEDEN, EIRE

1th COLIN DIXON, GBR
2th ANDY BARNES, GBR
3th ALASTAIR NICHOL, GBR
4th ROB SPENCER, GBR
5th NIKOS KAVADIAS, GRE
1st Woman, KIRSTY O’CALLAGHAN, GBR

For a great selection of photos and videos please look at www.vassiliki-watersports-festival.com