470 European Championship at Yacht Club de Cannes - Preview

European 470 Championship © Yacht Club de Cannes

European 470 Championship from 4 to 12 May 2024. The Yacht Club de Cannes is hosting the last major international event before the Olympic Games.

With 90 days to go until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - the sailing events will be held in Marseille - the Yacht Club de Cannes is hosting and organizing the 470 European Championship, one of the ten Olympic series in the running. Suffice it to say that all the international elite (European of course, but also worldwide) preparing for the Olympics, are present for this last major event on the Côte d'Azur after the Trofeo Princessa Sofia in Palma de Mallorca and the French Olympic Week in Hyères which ended at the end of last week. More than fifty crews are expected in the Bay of Cannes from 4 to 12 May.

Designed by the Frenchman André Cornu in 1963, built first by Jean Morin in Pessac, then by the largest shipyards on the planet, the "quat' sept" is often referred to as the "dinghy of the golden mean". Both technically and physically affordable, whether you are a beginner or experienced amateur sailor, or a yachtsman on holiday, it remains very popular with champions who started in Optimist and then Laser before an obligatory passage most often in 420. This dinghy measuring 4.70 metres has been an Olympic series since the Montreal Olympics in 1976. While many French crews have won many European and World Championships, Thierry Péponnet and Luc Pillot remain the only French sailors to win gold medals in Seoul in 1988. Mixed for the first time after twelve Olympiads, the 470 has not aged a bit. As proof, he is the Olympic "veteran" with more than 60 years of age.

It is no coincidence that the Cannes Yacht Club, founded in 1860, was chosen by the International 470 Class Association. Its reputation is well established. In addition to the famous and unmissable Royal Regattas every year in September, where the elite of the "Classics" meet, the club based at the Pointe Croisette, does not only train future champions, but organizes both the IRC European Championship, the International Finn Week, or the biggest international Dragon events...

While the latest Olympic medalists and other European and world champions are present in Cannes, we will be particularly interested in the French duo Camille Lecointre and Jérémie Mion, selected for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, untouchable this season because they won in Palma and Hyères, but also the young Cannes Matisse Pacaud and Lucie de Gennes (23 years old), two-time European champions and three-time junior world champions. Currently in the top nine in the senior world, the two YC Cannes licensees, who are aiming for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, are privileged to have been selected as "sparring partners" by the Lecointre Mion crew, Camille having won two bronze medals at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics. Racing at home on a stretch of water they know like the back of their hand, they are clearly among the favorites.

But they are not alone, starting with the Spaniards Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman, 2024 world champions and their runners-up, the Englishmen Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube, the Swedes Anthon Dhalberg and Lovisa Karlsson, 2023 European champions, or the Germans Malte and Anastasiya Winkel, second in the Paris 2024 Test Event behind Camille Lecointre and Jérémie Mion. Finally, the young Frenchmen Manon Penneac'h and Pierre Williot as well as Lomade Valade and Julien Brunel, are not lacking in talent or ambition, and have the opportunity to shine.

Jean-François Cutugno, president of the Yacht Club de Cannes and a former high-level 470 sailor, does not hide his satisfaction at organizing this European Championship: "We are very proud to host this event, for several reasons. It's an honor. The club was completely renovated this winter and is getting a makeover for the occasion. It's been a long time since we've organized a major international championship with an Olympic series, and we're also fortunate to have wonderful ambassadors who are as successful as they are involved in the club - Matisse Pacaud and Lucie de Gennes. Finally, and on a personal level, it is all the more important to me as I am very attached to this dinghy on which I have raced for a long time. I can count on our remarkable team of permanent and volunteer staff and our loyal partners to offer the competitors a superb championship... "