Harken Derm Seascape and First 18 Open European Championship
by Jakica Jesih 6 Sep 2019 11:44 BST
27-31 August 2019
Harken Derm Seascape and First 18 Open European Championship © Jakica Jesih, GoSailing
Slovenian coastal city Portorož was the venue of this year's Harken Derm Seascape and First 18 Open European Championship which finished successfully last Saturday with the prize giving ceremony, announcing the new European champions.
There were 25 boats competing, coming from eight different countries - Austria, Germany, UK, Slovakia, Chech Republic, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. The crews were far from uniformed - some of only guys, on other boats were girls, some were mixed, others made of family members, some were sailing doublehanded and some as a team of three - all within the class rules. Among them there were the defenders of the last year's winners' title, the former 470 Olympic sailor Mitja Margon with his crew (his daughters Urška Margon and Sara Margon, ŠD GoSAILING; Mitja was also the head of the organization), and the last year's bronze team Dejan Presen with Denes Szilagyi, JK Mipc.
The event was organized by GoSAILING sports club, in cooperation with the Slovenian Seascape & First 18 Class.
Sailing in the Piran bay was not the easiest and sailors had to show their tactics skills, as well as keen boat handling. There was some waiting for the sea breeze to kick in, and when it filled the course, it normally didn't exceed 10 knots, holding around 5-7 knots most of the time. There was one windier day there last Friday, with NE colder bora wind, and sailors had to sail wisely, not to be tricked by its famous shifts and gusts.
Besides the technical races, there was a day dedicated to a coastal race from Portorož to Izola and back, giving the sailors from abroad a great opportunity to enjoy the beautiful views of the Slovenian coast.
After the sailing program was finished, there was no doubt about the winner - Dejan Presen and Denes Szilagyi (JK Mipc) haven't lost a single race and with a perfect score of 8 bullets there was no need for them to race the last two races (discarded anyway), so they didn't. The rest of the fleet was still fighting, also for the podium positions. Blaž Kmetec and Jure Jerkovic (ŠD Gibanca) finished as silver and father/son crew Jure Jerman and Urban Jerman (JK Pirat) as bronze.
Dejan Presen: "We had a blast, all races were really competitive, luckily for us we had a really good speed and won all the races that we started, so at the end we had a perfect score. There were a lot of good teams fighting for the top spots and they were pushing us all the way."
Dejan Presen, an overall keen sailor (currently ranking at #13 on the World Sailing Open Match Race Rankings with his Lumba MR Team), surprised the fellow-sailors nicely at the prize giving ceremony with giving away his own private gift - a sailing course for the last ranked team.
Mitja Margon realized again (being in a role of an organizer, as well as a sailor, last year at the RC44 Portorož Cup already, he's a member of Team Nika) that the two roles combined are no easy task. Together with his daughters Urška and Sara they were defending the last year's winning title, but since Mitja had to skip a racing day to family matters, as well as the last races to the race organizing matters, he had to take the 10th.
Mitja Margon: "It's been a great week, although quite hard for us as an organizing team, because there were a lot of new things for us, that were logistically quite challenging. We managed to get through really nicely, we almost completed the racing program on the water, although we would want to have some more wind. But people were happy, we've put a lot of effort also in a social part of our event, and I think everybody was enthusiastic and happy and enjoying the program. On the water, for sure the best teams won, congratulations to them!"
The event was visited by the sailing industry legend Peter Harken and his wife Edit Olasz Harken, MD, PhD, the founder of Harken Derm sunscreen and lotion, the title sponsor of the event, which counted also as an EU launch of both products. Mrs Harken gave a short presentation about the sunscreen and the lotion, and the crews were given both as a gift.
There was a lot going on off the water too - after-sailing pasta on the pontoons, daily evening baseball matches, morning racing rules debriefings, and an official dinner, followed by the title sponsor's Harken Derm presentation and the concert of the local super popular band King Foo.
Overall Results: (top three)
1. Dejan Presen, Deni Szilagyi, JK Mipc, SLO, 8pts
2. Blaž Kmetec, Jure Jerkovic, ŠD Gibanca, SLO, 30pts
3. Jure Jerman, Urban Jerman, JK Pirat, SLO, 38pts