At the 2019 Nationals five Minisails were present and two local guest Fireballs.
The idea to have British nationals 2019 in Ostend was launched last year in Bowmoor during the Nationals 2018.
As this exotic move to mainland Europe was a first I expected only a small attendance from the UK and a full attendance of the usual suspects from Europe.
I was wrong, three Brits ventured the trip to Ostend and only two Belgians were there (Dean has a double nationality: British/Belgian, that would make the outcome 3.5 UK. and 1.5 Belgium).
The windforecast for Saturday was persistently fierce days before and indeed it turned out dinghy sailing was impossible on Saturday. We had a city walk in Ostend and got our faces freshly sandblasted for the occasion during the pass by the beach.
On Sunday we had a gentle wind and raced four races.
In true Minisail fashion we had a sinking boat, some unexplainable capsizes and me happily starting on the wrong side of the commitee boat.
(For the record there where: three Sprint MII, one wooden Meson and one wooden Sprite.)
For the first time ever I seemed to have taken the overall win at the end.
My Brittish mates helped me over my embarrassment of being the organiser and winner at the same time and we parted one rememberable event richer.
The support from our clubstaff SC Inside Outside Oostende was outstanding, the cubmembers manning the comittee/rescue boat did a great job and I’dd also like to thank our bigger scow nephews the Fireballs to be there to colour and support our fleet.
Building a wooden Minisail 