2021 EurILCA Radial Youth European Championships & Open European Trophy in Marina Kaštela

Last week the Marina Kaštela Sailing Club hosted the 2021 EurILCA Radial Youth European Championships & Open European Trophy. This open competition was attended by 300 participants from 38 countries, accompanied with about 100 coaches and 200 escorts, parents and experts.

The championship was held over 8 days, out of which the first two days were scheduled for the measurement procedure and registration of participants, followed by six days of races. In order to preserve the safety and health of the participants, the grand opening of the regatta was attended by a small number of representatives from each of the participating countries who, with a flag parade and musical accompaniment, showed that this was indeed an important international event.

Although all races were cancelled on the initial days of the regatta due to unfavourable winds, in the last three days the winds were strong enough for crowning winners from all groups.

Unfortunately, the regatta was marked with a tragic and premature departure of the Italian coach Andrea Patacca in whose honour the regatta participants sailed the remaining part of the regatta with black ribbons on their sails.

In the girls’ Under 17 Age Group, the Croatian Tea Peteh won the first place, while the Czech Alessia Palanti won the under-19 age group. The Italian Mattia Cesana was the overall champion in both boys’ age groups.

After hosting three Croatian National Championships, this was the first international competition of this level that was held in Marine Kaštela and hosted by our Sailing Club. We are beyond thrilled to have shown that both our facilities and human resources capacities were appropriate for welcoming 300 laser sailing boats which used an 80-m long slipway for entering the sea without causing any delays which provided for undisturbed regatta. These kinds of events are exactly what we had in mind when we decided to establish our Sailing Club and we hope that this will be the first out of many large-scale international sailing competitions to be held in Marina Kaštela.