Leg 1 - Swinoujscie - Mielno, 23.07.2008

Leg 1 - Swinoujscie - Mielno, 23.07.2008
On Wednesday 23rd July 2008, at 10am sharp 15 catamarans started from the beach in Swinoujscie to participate in the first leg of the Enea Baltic Sailing Cup 2008.
Earlier, Jarosław Kaczorowski, the Sport Director of the race, and Wojciech Żmurkiewicz, the Mayor of Swinoujscie, welcomed the crew and wished them strong winds.

The start itself showed that during the 72 mile leg to Mielno we will see very tough competition between the teams. A light wind from the beginning started to get stronger. Thanks to that the catamarans arrived at the finish line much earlier than anyone expected.

The competition on the water was really tough, and for the Chomicz / Wieczorek team ended in the middle of the leg with a broken mast. The team says they will not give up that easy, and they will take part in the next leg. First they need to find a new mast and replace it.

The two Tornados were the first ones on the finish line. The first team with Piotr Kowalewski at the helm needed 6h 15min 33secs to complete the leg. Piotr Cichocki was second on the finish line. Third was Wojciech Kaliski and his Exploder 20. The differences between the teams at the finish line were extreme. It is enough to say that the difference between the first and last catamaran was 1,5 hours.

The point classification is based on the final calculation of the achieved times.
Classification after the first leg (using Texel rating):

1. Coen de Koning / Jeroen van Leeuwen (NED) - 1 pt
2. Adam Skomski / Jakub Kopyłowicz (POL) - 2 pts
3. Jacek Noetzel / Marin Strzyżewski (POL) - 3 pts
4. Piotr Kowalewski / Maciej Klosowicz (POL) - 4 pts
5.Piotr Cichocki / Ewa Górska (POL) - 5 pts
6. Robert Wilczyński / Robert Morawski (POL) - 6 pts
7. Sebastian Zarzeczański / Marcin Sołtysiak (POL) - 7 pts
8. Wojciech Kaliski / Tymoteusz Bendyk (POL) - 8 pts
9. Seweryn Krajewski / Maciej Lunitz (POL) - 9 pts
10. Mark Roempel / Michael Hilger (GER) - 10 pts
11. Arkadiusz Piernicki / Łukasz Janusz (POL) - 11 pts
12. Heiner Wolfshoefer / Manuel Vacarri (SUI) 12 pts
13. Piotr Baryżewski / Michał Kraskowski (POL) - 13 pts
14. Janusz Kacprzak / Marek Boroń (POL) - 14 pts
15. Jarosław Korzec / Bronisław Korzec (POL) - 15 pts
16. Piotr Chomicz / Waldemar Wieczorek (POL) - DNF

First leg's picture gallery >>>
Video from first leg >>>