Results / Lipna Lake Open Lipna Lake, Czech Republic - 27/08/2010

RS700 Grand Prix
27-29 August, Lipno Lake, Czech Republic

The weekend started on Thursday morning for the RS700 fleet in Czech Republic with 7 boats making their way down to Czech's sweet sailing spot, Lipno Lake Marina. Lipno is a man made lake, the Yacht Club is found on a nice stretch facing east and we had a fantastic 12-20 knot easterly forecast all weekend. We spent the day training in the beautiful breeze and sunny weather on Thursday, trying out new things we learned from each other and generally getting psyched up for the three days racing ahead.

Friday lived up to the forecast with a strong 15-22 knot easterly blowing, we generally get pretty strong gusts here, but hey, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. The course was laid out for an 11am start. Five races were scheduled, however the 5th was eventually called off. David and Jan lead the fleet, Zdenek was hot on their tails and Miroslav, Jiri and myself were battling it out at the back. Unfortunately Friday saw Adam out of the competition due to a broken toe.

Saturday brought with it a lighter northerly breeze (9-12 knots), the course was spun around directing us along the width of of the lake. The fleet was tightly packed with some exciting starts and tactics coming into play. Unfortunately the afternoon races were cancelled because the wind dwindled down to an annoying nothing. The fleet retired to the yacht club to enjoy a great meal provided by the club as well as plenty of "pivo", you guessed it. Beer.

The wind gods were awake again on Sunday, back to 16-25knots easterly. Three races ran back to back with the same course as Friday's races. The gun went off at 11am and the boats battled it out in some thrilling conditions. I called it quits after a few wipe-outs in the second race, my body was broken and my boat was not, a good time to end my first RS700 regatta. I sailed in to watch the final, spectacular race from the club.

Thanks to Zdenek for the facilities at Lipno which are second to none and for always making everyone feel welcome, and finally thanks to everyone that attended our RS700 Grand Prix in Lipno!