With the line-up for the 13th edition of the Euromed Malta Championship now con-firmed, the racing classes will be made up of 80 Optimist sailors, 24 Lasers and eight RS Fevas, a fleet of 112 boats that will brighten the waters of Mellieħa Bay for four days between today and next Sunday.
Young sailors, club officials and family members from as far away as the Seven Feet Yacht Club in Vladivostock, the Pacifico club, also in Vladivostock, the St Petersburg YC and the Rautu YC, of Moscow, all Russians, are here for the challenge and enjoyment.
The Haifa Sailing Club, from Israel, as well as the Algerian Sailing Federation and the SailCoach Foundation, of Irish origin, are also all having sailors in the Euromeds this year, along with other youngsters from Malta, Great Britain, Denmark, Sicily and Slovakia.
But, what makes the Euromeds an ever-increasing appealing event?
Gael Le Mauguen is a French coach in charge of four Algerian sailors at the Euromeds this week.
Also a consultant to the Algerian Sailing Federation since July 2010, but endowed with a remarkable multi-national results and achievements, Le Mauguen is a great admirer of Malta’s “perfect weather conditions”.
“I’ve known of the Euromed Championships for many years but I never considered coming with my sailors for this competition before. I’m a private coach and instruct many sailors from all over the world,” he said.
“I just came to Malta last year for the first time for vacation and saw all the opportunity that could provide this island, especially for the winter season.
“Now I’m a permanent resident here which is quicker for me to organise training clinics here or to encourage more foreign sailors to come for the Euromeds.”
Trevor Millar, the CEO of SailCoach, is here in charge of a group of Laser sailors. He believes the championships are held in ideal conditions and at the most appropriate time of the year.
“Yes, this particular time of the year is very suitable for us. The schools have holidays and the sun is out unlike most other parts of Europe,” he said.
Foreign teams’ approaches and their schedules for the ‘Christmas’ event are showing that participation for the prestigious ‘Malta award’ is not the only attraction for visits here.
It seems, the Maltese Islands have the magnetism, qualities and charm to make them an ideal winter training destination for sailing.
How true is such reasoning?
And, are the Euromeds really contributing in making Malta recognised and utilised for such potential – an ideal winter training destination for sailing?
Millar explains: “Well for us we have just discovered Malta and what we have seen to date, it has a lot going for it.
“The winter weather is great and it has lots of wind which sailors love, the people are friendly and speak English and it is not expensive to fly to Malta at this time, all these things make for a good SailCoach base and having a regatta is a big plus.
“We would like to think that SailCoach being here will help get Malta onto the dinghy sailing map with our operations this winter. At the end of this season, we shall look seriously at coming back next winter.
“The only downside we have come across is the price of the ferries to get to Malta with all our equipment (minibus with trailers, coach boats and 14 Laser dinghies). If we can find a way to make this more reasonable, we would be tempted to bring over other teams from our sailing federation with us next year.
“If we can do that, then Malta will become a heavyweight winter training venue for our sport.”
The Euromeds will be mainly an Optimists Class event where only sailors under the age of 16 years are eligible to contest.
However, older ones will be racing in the Laser 4.7 Classes and the newly-introduced RS Feva class where in both categories there will be male and female participants.
The Malta Euromed Championship is organised by the Malta Young Sailors Club with the co-operation of Kunsill Malti għall-iSport and the Mellieħa Local Council. Competition is held under the patronage of the Malta Sailing Federation.
The Seabank Resort & Spa is the cham-pionships’ Official Hotel while the Mexico Restaurant (ex-Tunny Net) will be the event’s headquarters.