Thank you to Michał Korneszczuk for this report: The inaugural Polish Open Championship was held on September 27-29 in Sopot. It was the next step to establish J/70s in Poland, which seems to be on a good track. Yacht Club Sopot, organizing authority for the event, scheduled nine races for Saturday and Sunday. However, that was not all. On Friday, three tune-up races were run as well. It was the lightest conditions of all three days. Nonetheless, all teams took advantage to polish their crew work and settings. Saturday morning welcomed teams with typical Sopot conditions – westerlies of 10-15 knots with some shifts up to 20 degrees. This made for challenging and interesting races. On some occasions, it was only two boat lengths that separated three boats on the finish line. The day went in favor of the Cellfast Team that held a slim lead over the Neauca Sailing Team. In the evening, Yacht Club Sopot invited all participants to their recently refurbished clubhouse for a dinner. However, it was Sunday that brought most of the emotions. Four races were run with winds gusting up to 26 knots, with a few boats occasionally broaching. As this was another day of westerlies, picking the right side of the course was essential as big differences of pressure were crucial to a winning strategy. The Cellfast Team (Michal Korneszczyk/Kuba Surowiec/Grzegorz Gozdzik/Tomasz Micewicz) held on to their lead, winning over the Neuca Sailing Team (Paweł Tarnowski/Łukasz Kiwer/Marcin Więcek) with GTJ (Michał Jabłoński/Tomasz Jabłoński/Marta Bielinowicz/Mateusz Błoński/Michał Gryglewski) taking third. Big thank you goes to PRO Tomasz Sawukinas and his team that has run all nine races to a tight schedule.
Photos:
https://www.facebook.com/SailSpotting/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1226056364247798
https://www.facebook.com/SailSpotting/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1226902277496540
Video:
http://www.facebook.com/ycsopot/videos/912760905789938
https://youtu.be/srcfIWXWdEQ
Results:
https://www.upwind24.pl/regatta/i-otwarte-mistrzostwa-polski-klasy-j-70-2019/results