Conquer the wind

Last week as we were walking along the sea front in our area, we saw lots of sails in the distance

They became more obvious as we got nearer

lots of international flags too.

And then we saw the poster. The 2024 ILCA Senior European Championships and Open European Trophy is an Olympic qualifier event for Paris, 2024, delivering 2 places for European nations. The event was held in our area this year.

We walked round to the marina and saw hundreds of boats

lots of European nations were represented - maybe all?

a forest of sails and almost as many rescue boats as racing ones

We walked along one of the quays to get a better view of the boats.

Two days later as we were walking by the sea in Paleo Faliro we saw them in the distance. Not a good photo.

Three days later, that part of the marina, completely empty - all gone.

Maria Erdi of Hungary clinched first-ever European championship title, adding to her achievement as the reigning World champion from the previous year in The Hague.

Finnish sailor Valteri Uusitalo made a senior debut as a Senior European medalist after finishing atop the fleet after eight races with a total of 42 points.

Local sailors, Marios Stathas, Vasillis Koukodis and Nikolas Komianos secured the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals respectively in both the overall and Under 21 European categories.