BSST2020_M32_Gardasee_1_NEWS

EUROPEAN CHAMPION!

We have done it! The Black Star Sailing Team wins the M32 European Championship 2020! 
The intensive trainings on the Lake of Uri and in Denmark have paid off: With the victory of the European Championship of the M32 class from September 4th to 6th, 2020 in Riva del Garda in Italy we have achieved a great success.

We say thank you!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank: our families and relatives who support us on a daily basis and are so considerate of our training and competition plans – 2020 is an extremely difficult year with special challenges and repeated short-term changes.
A big thank you goes of course also to our partners moyreal and weytec for their generous financial support. 
Then we would like to thank the M32 teams, the M32 race management and the organisers of the regatta: We had the best conditions for our preparations and race events. 
A final thank you goes to the entire Black Star Sailing Team on the water and on land: you believed in this victory and made it possible through your commitment and your skills!

Dream start to the racing series

The opening day was a “perfect day”. With five victories in five races, we were perfectly happy with the first race day. Of course it was not that easy. Some of the races were very close and fiercely contested – but we always managed to be the first team to cross the finish line with the bow. 

We started the second day with the appropriate self-confidence. Despite deductions for an early start, we managed to finish first again in the first race. After that, more and more small mistakes crept in during the following races: With early starts and a painful penalty we could not win every race. Nevertheless, we always managed to reach a place on the podium and, above all, to keep our toughest opponent at a distance.

We started into the final day with a comfortable lead of 12 points. After the disagreements and the unnecessary deductions the day before, we decided to sail as we did on the opening day: relaxed, focused on ourselves and looking less at our opponents. This plan was rewarded with four victories, which enabled us to do without the last race. The Black Star Sailing Team became European Champion with 14 points ahead of the second placed team.
 

Perfect Manoeuvre

The cancellation of one of the two GC32 Racing Tour 2020 regattas at the end of August prompted us to look for alternatives. With M32 and the European Championship held on Lake Garda on the first weekend of September, we found the ideal opportunity to test our intensively trained procedures and optimised manoeuvres in competition and to measure ourselves against the elite of this closely related boat class. With surprising and of course highly gratifying results. 
(The M32 catamaran has the same boat length as our GC32 catamaran, but is slightly narrower and has less sail area. The main difference is that these boats do not have foils and cannot fly.)

Now we are already looking forward to October, where the GC32 Riva Cup, the only GC32 Racing Tour Event 2020 will take place. And this also on Lake Garda.

Christian Zuerrer
Team Principal
 

Pictures Credits: Photos 1 – 5, 7 © Oliver Hartas – M32 World 2020