Puerto Santa María 14th October 2024 – In Puerto Sherry everything is ready for the celebration of a new sporting event of the highest level and demand, which will once again put the focus of world sailing in the marina and the bay of Cadiz, we are talking about the European Championship of the international Flying Dutchman class organised by the CN Puerto Sherry between 18 and 26 October, bringing together in Andalusia the best sailors of the European continent. This is not the first time that Flying Dutchman class sailors have participated in an event organised by the CN Puerto Sherry, a club that already organised a regatta in 2021, but it is the first time an international event of this magnitude has been held in its waters.

The championship is part of the World Race Flying Dutchman 2024/25, a global event that will run from October 2024 to April 2025, with a series of regattas culminating in the class’ World Championship next spring. This will be the first European since the one held in 2019 in Hungary, as the class organises the World Championships two years in a row in Europe and the following year in America or Oceania and the pandemic forced a reorganisation of calendars. The organisation of the Euroflying Cup, a European circuit that starts in Spain and passes through Italy, Croatia, Austria and Germany during the week of Kiel, is annual. In Spain, Altea has been in charge of opening the circuit for 20 years, but in 2025 the starting port will be Puerto Sherry.

This is a regatta that goes beyond sporting interest to become an attraction for the promotion of the city, the province and the Andalusian community, and which highlights the value of sailing as an economic engine for the region, something to which the CN Puerto Sherry has been contributing by taking on sporting challenges such as the one that is about to begin.

The choice of Puerto Sherry to host the European and World Championships was clear, given its high performance for both sailing and nautical tourism, its hospitality and its proven organisational capacity. The combination of a first class nautical infrastructure, its strategic location and its favourable climate, make it one of the most outstanding destinations for competitive sailing events at an international level.

A Championship with history and prestige

The Flying Dutchman is a double-crew boat with an elegant, high-performance design, which has played a key role in the history of Spanish Olympic sailing. This boat, designed in 1952, reached its greatest glory with the gold medal of Jane Abascal and Miguel Noguer in the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, and the victory of Luis Doreste and Domingo Manrique in Barcelona 1992. Although it ceased to be an Olympic class in 1992, it is still one of the fastest and most technically demanding monohulls in the world, with a length of 6.06 metres.

The boat is recognised as the ‘Prince of the Sea’ for its nobility, power and aggressive design. It is a boat that does not go unnoticed, neither for sailors nor for spectators, due to its speed and technical complexity. It is not an easy boat to handle, and only the most experienced sailors can get the best out of it, which makes it a real nautical challenge. At 67 years of age, it is still one of the fastest two-man monohulls in the world.

A total of 63 boats and 126 athletes from 10 countries are taking part in the European Championship in Puerto Sherry, with Germany contributing the most boats with 30, followed by Spain with 9, the Netherlands with 8, Hungary and Poland with 4 each, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Switzerland with 2 and Austria and Italy with one team each. The championship will not only be a high-level competition, but also a meeting place for the international community of Flying Dutchman sailors, contributing to the exchange of experiences between sailors of all ages, including Olympians and European and World Champions.

The best of each house

The sailor from Cádiz and leader of the Timón de Roche regatta team, Pepe Ruiz, together with his partner Fran Martínez, is a Spanish reference in the Flying Dutchman Class and one of the architects of the organisation of this European Championship which is about to begin. Ruiz, representing the RCN de Cádiz, and Martínez of the RCN de Torrevieja, Masters World Champions in 2021 and current European runners-up, form one of the favourite crews in the battle for the continental title. The Timón de Roche regatta team will present another leading boat crewed by Pablo Villar and Juan Pablo de Diego under the flag of the RCM de Sotogrande.

The objective does not seem easy in the presence of the best contenders in the class, such as the German crew formed by Kay-uwe Lüdtke and Kai Schafers, from Yatch Club Hannover, world champions since last March, European champions and recently proclaimed national champions in their country, or the Hungarians Szalbolcs Majthenyi and Andras Domokos, world champions on more than a dozen occasions.

The pools also include the Dutch Enno Kramer and Ard Geelkerken, the Spanish Gines Romero Bernabeu and Álvaro Moreno Egea from RCN Torrevieja, the German crews of Hans-Peter Schwarz/Roland Kirst, Killian Koenig/Johannes Brack, and Shmuel Markoff/Lars Stöckmann from Yacht Club Hannover, and Nicola and Francesco Vespasiani from Italy, among others.

Among the women, the favourite is Meike Greten with her crew member Tom Greten, also from Yacht Club Hannover, the largest in the class in the world.

Valle de la Riva, president of the CN Puerto Sherry, does not hide her enthusiasm, ‘We are all very excited about this championship, also because until the world championship in April we will have several boats during the winter in Puerto Sherry and some crews will come to compete in a European league. We are working hard to make sure that everything goes well and that everyone feels at home’. In the organisation of this championship, the CN Puerto Sherry employs around thirty people between land and sea committees, security, sailors and other services necessary to set the machinery in motion.

With several days of measurements, paperwork and training, the competition starts on Monday 21st October at midday and will continue until Saturday 26th October, the last day of racing, which will also host the trophy ceremony.

The European Flying Dutchman Championship is a regatta organised by the CN Puerto Sherry in collaboration with the international secretariat of the class, with the support of the Royal Spanish Sailing Federation and the Andalusian Sailing Federation, the support of the City Council of El Puerto de Santa Maria, and the main sponsorship of Puerto Sherry.