Sailing in Malta ends the current year on a high note as the Malta Young Sailors Club are enthusiastically engaged in the fine-tuning of the final preparations for the staging of the sixth edition of the Euromed Malta Championship.

This five-day Championship, to be staged between Friday and Tuesday, will be presenting two categories of participants.

The main contest will be the Optimist Class challenge where the Optimist Sailing Dinghy, the internationally recognised one design single handed sailing craft, will be raced. Eligible to participate in this Class, the largest junior class in the World, are ‘sailors’ under the age of 16 years and the Malta event has this year attracted 69 protagonists.

Concurrently with the Optimist Class Championship the 2005 Euromed will also comprise a Lasers Class Regatta which has attracted a further 22 over-16-year-old competitors, all of whom are past Optimist sailors.

The Dolmen Hotel will be the official Championship headquarters with the Palazzo Santa Rosa providing adequate space for the safe parking of participating boats.

Launching of boats will be made from Mistra Bay while the actual racing will be held in the picturesque St Paul’s Bay over a 4 km course.

Undoubtedly, the Euromed Championship has a great potential in the sport-tourism concept where foreign young sailing enthusiasts, possibly accompanied by other family members, fly to Malta to participate in a pleasant and challenging event while at the same time spending part of their Christmas holidays here. In this regard the Malta Young Sailors Club collaborates with Air Malta, which is also the Official Carrier of Euromed. In fact this year’s fleet comprises 53 foreign sailors who hail from 11 different countries, namely the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Norway, Sweden, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, Turkey, Great Britain and Israel.

The Malta contingent is made up of 38 sailors, comprising 10 females. Jean Paul Fleri Soler is the Malta team coach. Part of the successful local organisation structure is the International Jury team to run the technical aspect of the Championship. This year the Malta Young Sailors Club has secured a commendable multinational panel of jury comprised of officials hailing from Croatia, Italy, Holland and Malta and will be under the Chairmanship of Peter Valentino.

The sixth Euromed Malta Championship programme sets off on Friday at 1.30pm with a well regarded practice race which will help to put one and all in a competitive spirit. The Championship presents competitors with 11 races with the first race on each day, as from Saturday, starting at 10am.

The weather forecast for the five-day Championship predicts cloudy skies and moderate westerly wind. Well, on many occasions forecasting the wind condition is more difficult then predicting the winners. So, better play safe by wishing good luck to all, organisers and competitors, and may this sixth Euromed Malta Championship results in another pleasant and exciting sailing manifestation.