Inclement weather forces postponement of first day of racing

The first day of racing in the fifth EUROMED Malta Championship at St Paul’s Bay had to be postponed yesterday morning because of the inclement weather.

With the weather forecast for a gale warning force 8 from the NW, the 8.15 a.m. meeting between the Race Management team, coaches and the various team leaders saw a debate about whether the day's racing programme could be held.

The Race Officer, Mr Anthony Lockett, briefed those concerned and decided to take the Committee Boat on the water before making his final decision. The waves inside St Paul’s Bay had already started building and one squall after another brought strong winds and blinding rain sweeping across the bay.

At 10am Mr Lockett, a sailing authority with extensive experience at several high calibre events including the Olympic Games of Sydney and Athens, announced that the day’s racing would be postponed to another day and that the situation would be reviewed this morning.

In order to keep the more than 100 children occupied the International Jury put together a number of Rules’ Seminars for the benefit of the foreign and local youngsters.

Weather permitting the fifth edition of the Optimists Class EUROMED Championship gets on with its official Day 1 racing today where the current weather forecast is a NW Force 6/7 condition.

On Friday, the first official day of the Euromed, the weather was quite rough, WSW Force 5, but with a protected sea in St Paul’s Bay.

Although no official racing was scheduled it was the day when all foreign and local participants were expected to complete registration formalities. The Race Officer gave the first warning signal of the practice race exactly on time at 12.55pm when 87 Optimists and 23 Lasers competed for a good position on the starting line.

The 5th EUROMED Championship is organised by the Malta Young Sailors Club and is being sponsored by Air Malta, the Malta Tourism Authority, the Malta Maritime Authority, Medex Container Line, Merlin Computers and the Dolmen Hotel which is also the Event’s Headquarters.