RS Vareo European Championships 2023 at Nove Mlyny Lake, Czech Republic

Fleet - RS Vareo European Championships 2023 © YC Dvie Brclav

Team GBR at RS Vareo European Championships 2023 © Fedor Kubes

BLueKiteCastle - RS Vareo European Championships 2023 © Lida Novokova

Three GBR sailors travelled to the Czech Republic for the four day event at Nove Mlyny Lake in the South Moravia wine region. The event was shared with the RS700 class. In total there were 35 RS Vareo competitors from five countries.

The lake is big - 1668 hectares, so there was plenty of room to share with the kite-surfers and fishermen without getting in each other's way.

The event was run jointly by on site Yacht Club Dyje Brclav and nearby YC Lodni Sporty Brno home of the biggest RS Vareo fleet in Europe.

Michelle Collier-Brooks and Nick Crickmore both arrived several days early. We first found the Yellow Campsite catering hut and started our tenure with a nice local craft beer. We had a chance to experience the variety of wind strengths and directions the lake had to offer for a few days in advance of the main event. We also had a little practice regatta of five races with some of the Brno sailors who moved their usual Wednesday evening series to the lake "on tour".

Helen arrived on Friday so we were able to get all three boats ready (and start the social properly) in advance of the first day's racing.

On Saturday the RS700s went first by daily rota and the RS Vareos had the novel experience of waiting for the start line to be lengthened to accommodate our numbers before we could get under way. We had some testing conditions with lots of wind and some interesting shift, gusts and bends to ensure thrills and spills all round. Nick had an unfortunate start despite all the preparation having to return to shore to fix a detached tiller extension and so missed the first race. Michelle came out of the blocks at speed and was positioned to win the first race but had a navigational problem racing to the wrong finish line.

There were four races in all. Best GBR UK result of the week was Michelle managing a 3rd in race four despite having some water ingress from a collision in the previous race.

At the end of the day team GBR sat 8th, 12th and 29th on the score sheet.

At the evening barbecue the general consensus was hoping for less wind tomorrow.

Day two: Be careful what you wish for - AP over two, then over four, and in the end no racing due to lack of wind across the race course. So there was plenty of time for more fleet repairs to get everyone ready for more racing the next day. We all enjoyed Lida's carrot lunch and further evening entertainment, including wine tasting courtesy of our friends from Brno.

Day four: The wind returned in reasonable measure to give us a further three races in the afternoon. Race officer Tom Rushbridge ran a superb show to adjust the course when necessary and give us all a fair chance in the variable conditions. Joseph Pavlovsky had accumulated an impressive set of wins to place him overnight leader representing CZE.

Day five: The wind settled a little more allowing a further five races to complete the series. Josef was never out of the top ten but the conditions suited Fedor Kubes perfectly allowing him to overturn Joseph's lead by three points and become RS Vareo European Champion representing Slovakia.

Helen took home 3rd ladies prizes for team GBR - but had to leave smartly to catch her flight so her prizes are in the post!

We're now looking forward to the Noble Marine RS Vareo National Championship at Great Yarmouth and Gorleston SC 23-25 June. You will find event entry and information here.

Overall Results: