5o5 Europeans '83 in Karlskrona

IT'S SWEDEN 1, 2 & 3
 by Lars Hultgren (reprint from 505 Great Britain No.23, December 1983)

The European Championship 1983 was arranged by The Royal Navy Sportclub of Karlskrona and the Karlskrona Yachtclub. Seventy-four dinghies from nine different countries were going to race for the championship. As host nation, Sweden got 21 places because some nations such as the UK and France couldn't fill up their quotas. Unfortunately UK's number one at the selections, Peter White, had a crash with his car carrying his boat outside Karlskrona and the boat got 'fully' damaged. Still I think Peter was lucky that he and his family didn't get injured.

On Saturday July 30th it was time for tune up race but a thunderstorm was expected at the racing area and the race committee decided not to sail the race. In the evening it was time for opening ceremony and after that the briefing.

July 31st: Time for the first race. After sailing six nautical miles we reached the offshore course. The wind was about 8-14 knots and for the first beat there was more wind on the port side of the course and those who started early and made a single-tack first beat were in good position at the windward mark. Stefan Eriksson with crew Kjell Lidman led Clive Robinson/ Malcolm Swallow with 1981 year European Champion Karl-Erik Nilsson/Jan Calvert third. These three boats with Herwe Wattine/Patrick Solatges of France changed positions round the course but at the finishing line Nilsson was three feat ahead of Eriksson with Robinson third and Wattine fourth. Krister Bergstrom with crew Dan Goransson finished sixth and the champions of Sweden 1983 Ebbe Rosen/Olle Wenrup seventh.

August 1st: Second race on the inshore course due to heavy conditions at about 20-25 knots. Because of trouble in the gate start the race committee had to recall the start but only did it after the leading Swede had sailed nearly the first lap. After one hour a new gate start took place without problems. John Kobylanski/Simon Briddon from the UK won the race with the Eklund brothers second and Nilsson/Calvert third. Rosen/Wenrup finished fifth and Eriksson/Lidman sixth.

August 2nd: Race three on the offshore course at about 8-16 knots. Again there was trouble in the gate start. The pathfinder and the gate launch weren't stationed as mentioned in sailing instructions close astern and to leeward of the committee boat and a lot of those who wanted to start early didn't get an honest chance to make a good start. Surprisingly the race committee let the fleet go away. After the race, 10 boats asked for compensation for the incident and they got it, among those were Rosen/Wenrup and Bergstrom/Goransson. After the first beat Robinson/Swallow led the fleet ahead of Scherer/Mathis from Switzerland with Eriksson/ Lidman third. At the finishing line the positions were the same and Nilsson/Calvert finished fourth and Eklund brothers seventh.

August 3rd: The fourth race was started in 12 knots on the offshore course and the wind decreased during the whole race and for the last beat there was nearly no wind but it increased a bit and the race was finished within the four hour time limit. This race was totally dominated by Swedish 505 sailors with seven Swedes in the top 10! The pathfinder led at the windward mark. At the last beat Nilsson, Eklund, Bergstrom and Rosen had a tough fight in the very light breeze and at finishing line the positions were unchanged. Eriksson finished sixth and Robinson ninth.

August 4th: Time for lay-day and football match between Team Sweden and Team Europe. After the first half the foreigners led by 3 to 1 but with a strong second period Sweden pulled back to four all and everybody thought that was a good result. In the evening it was time for a visit to Queens Island, an old castle in the archipelago, where the sailors from England and Ireland made the entertainment with nice songs and so on.

August 5th: Again the inshore course, this time due to haze on the offshore course. The wind was 6-12 knots with big shifts in direction during the whole race. Rosen/Wenrup dominated the race and won with the Elkington brothers second, Kobylanski was fourth, Wattine fifth, Robinson eighth, Nilsson ninth and Bergstrom tenth. Eriksson had a bad race and wasn't in the first twenties. Before the last race Nilsson led, Rosen with Eriksson and Eklund following. Robinson was the first foreigner in fifth place.

August 6th: Last race on the offshore course. Very big shifts on the first beat in light breeze which decreased more and more. Nilsson just had to get Rosen in a bad position to win, Nilsson tried to control Rosen at start and did succeed in that. At their first mark Nilsson was in the champion's position since they were both down in the fifties with Nilsson ahead. Eriksson was in front of the fleet and was now second overall but unfortunately the wind wasn't strong enough to finish the race within the time limit. Due to this no bigger changes in final results happened compared to after the fifth race.

European champions of 1983 were Karl-Erik Nilsson/Jan Calvert with Ebbe Rosen/Olle Wenrup second and Anders and Staffan Eklund third. Late in the evening it was time for prizegiving and barbecuing. In his winner's speech, Nilsson told us that it took him 13 years to be a European champion the first time and that he was now very lucky since it only took him two years to be it again.

RESULTS
1 7343 Karl-Erik Nilsson/Jan Calvert   1-3-4-1-9   13.7p Sweden
2 7591 Ebbe Rosen/Olle Wenrup   7-5-YMP-4-1   24.0p Sweden
3 7593 Staffan Eklund/Anders Eklund   13-2-7-2-7   32.0p Sweden
4 7498 Stefan Eriksson/Kjell Lidman   2-13-21-6-28   32.1p Sweden
5 7399 Clive Robinson/Malcolm Swallow   3-11-1-9-8   34.7p UK
6 7542 Krister Bergstrom/Dan Goransson   6-DNF-YMP-3-10   44.5p Sweden
7 7501 Herve Wattine/ Patrick Solatges   4-14-8-22-5   52.0p France
8 7395 Urs Scherrer/Ruedi Mathis   9-27-2-18-6   53.7p Switzerland
9 7430 John E Kobylanski/Simon Briddon   19-11-23-17-4   56.0p UK
10 7391 Mark Elkington/Paul Elkington   38-110-5-21-2   56.0p UK


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