13-year-old Pavel Rasskazov (RUS 24) won the 11th edition of Euromed Malta Championship held in December to make it a second consecutive Russian victory following last year’s inspiring win by eleven-year-old Nikita Ushkov the youngest ever of all Euromed overall winners.

The 18 competing Russian sailors at the event, hailing from two sailing clubs from the St. Petersburg region, the Rautu Sailing Team and SC Paruskin, won ten of the twenty-six trophies at stake.

Eight of the remaining 16 trophies were won by Italian sailors, six by Maltese, and one each by sailors from Great Britain and Israel.

Eligible to participate in this Optimist Class Championship, the largest junior class in the World were ‘sailors’ under the age of 16 years. A significant 98 Optimist Class record-entry made the 11th Edition with the youngest sailors also being Russian; namely 7-year-old Ivan Pasnykov was the youngest male with 8-year-old Andrej Mikhanikov being the youngest female competitor.

Undoubtedly, the number and standard of competitors make or break an event. Eleven editions of an event which has a particular story, an event held for a reason, an event which has given Malta a notable identity.

The setting up of the Malta Young Sailors Club in the late 90’s was a mission of love and dedication by parents hailing from the sailing community to encourage their young children take up a healthy activity which would help them both as a sport disciple and also in character formation.

John Ripard Jr., one of the main protagonists in the setting up of the Malta Young Sailors Club and the origination of ‘Euromed’ said:

“I believe I can comment on the statement with some authority having been one of the originators of the idea to hold an international competitive one class dinghy championship in Malta. Our mission is very accurately described by your statement.

“At the time there did not exist a numerous and successful one design class in Malta. Admittedly there were a few lasers but very few numbers used to race competitively against each other. Our aim was to start kids young and to develop a numerous class which would assist in generating competitiveness purely as a result of increasing the fleet size.

“We wanted our kids to experience a large fleet and our only alternative at the time was the vastly more expensive option of taking our kids abroad. Instead of this we decided that we would grow the class organically locally, and this we did with marvelous success.

“A core part of our strategy was the hosting of a numerous international regatta and hence the birth of the Euromed whose success could not have been achieved without the selfless dedication, not only of the parents of competing kids, but more impressively, by the number of experienced volunteers, like Jovin Rausi, Bennie Grech, Peter Valentino, Peter Dimech, yourself, and many others who did not have their own kids in the MYSC, but who nevertheless gave plenty of their time, purely out of passion for the sport and for the pleasure of seeing youngsters battle it out on the water.”

Peter Dimech was this year’s Principal Race Officer (PRO) and one of the regular collaborators who have followed the progress of this Championship throughout its existence.

He said: “The complete concept of the wonderful MYSC story is a booming adventure of a club and an event purely credited to the dedicated efforts of the parents of current and past sailors and of other enthusiastic volunteers.

“A whole beehive of activists assigned to different significant tasks – the preparation of our young sailors in the necessary tactics and racing skills, the safety team, the availability of the committee boat where the PRO establish his on-the water headquarters, helped by some four volunteers all of whom are non parents, the course laying team, and the shore team where all the other parents help out.

“There is an amazing nightmare to sort out; getting the boats to the slipway, tallying the sailors in and out of the water, with the stalwarts helped by a beach master, the registration and race office administration.

“Then it is really an all hands on deck exercise with other parents helping with the daily snack bags, launching retrieval, hot chocolate and cakes, boat wash down and general clear-up on a daily basis during the event with notable support and co-operation even coming from the Birzebbugia Sailing Club and the Riu Seabank Hotel staff. Yes, it’s a great thrill forming part of the event’s team.

Lastly the weather, our sunshine in Malta puts a smile on all the visitors’ faces, especially when those from the northern countries hear of snow and freezing conditions at home.