Saturday 19 August – Nieuwpoort, Belgium – The 2018 Half Ton Classics Cup was officially opened this evening with a wonderful champagne reception at the Koninklijke Yacht Club Nieuwpoort where Commodore Baudouin Meyhui welcomed the competitors and paid tribute to all the volunteers for the huge amount of work done behind the scenes to make the event possible. He also thanked all the event sponsors (see logos at right) for their most generous support of the regatta.
Half Ton Class Secretary Bert Janssen in turn thanked the host club for their ongoing support of the Class and for hosting the event once again this year. The regatta has attracted a significant number of overseas competitors and flags and gifts were exchanged with representatives of the Half Ton Class Italia and with Half Ton sailors who have come all the way from Hobart in Tasmania.
Today’s planned warm up race had to be cancelled due to strong winds and big seas, but tomorrow racing begins in earnest with a briefing at 12.00 and the first of the championship races scheduled to start at 14.00. Unfortunately the forecast for tomorrow is for very light winds so we will all have to keep our fingers crossed for some sea breeze so that sailing is possible. The good news is that the wind returns from Tuesday so the rest of the week should provide glorious sailing conditions.
This year’s fleet has some interesting new entries as well as several familiar faces who have undergone extensive restoration work recently so the regatta is well and truly up for grabs. As the conditions will be quite varied we can expect a variety of winners and hopefully a very close regatta.
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Half Ton Classics Cup 2022 