On Friday, September 7th, 107 sailors from 14 nations gathered at the Union-Yacht-Club Attersee in Austria for the ILCA Europacup. The region welcomed the competitors with pleasant weather and favorable sailing conditions on the first day.

With winds ranging from 5 to 9 knots from the North-Northeast, sailors across all classes competed in two races. In the ILCA 4 class, the second race had to be shortened at the second windward mark due to diminishing and shifting winds.

In the ILCA 7 class, featuring 33 competitors, Anton Messeritsch (Austria) took the lead, followed closely by Siyou Sung from Korea and Vadym Okladnikov from Ukraine.

In the ILCA 6 Women’s fleet, Beata Dokoupilova from Czechia secured the top spot among 21 competitors, with Serbian sailors Kristina Boja and Aleksandra Vujosevic trailing in second and third, respectively.

Hungary's Benedek Heder dominated the ILCA 6 Men’s fleet, winning both races and establishing a comfortable lead over Austria's Maximilian Kasper and Ukraine's Bohdan Rukhlin among the 29 competitors.

The ILCA 4 Men’s class saw two Czech sailors, Jiri Tomes and Tomas Peterka, leading the 17-competitor field, with Peterka tied in points with Ukraine’s Semen Sokol, who is currently in third.

In the ILCA 4 Women’s division, featuring seven competitors, Slovakia’s Adela Prokopcova claimed victory in both races, with Roxie Bartuksova from Czechia close behind in second place, and Germany’s Anna Kleehammer in third.

After a day on the water, the sailors enjoyed a delicious lasagne dinner at the UYCA restaurant, where they spent the evening sharing race experiences, playing cards, and engaging in a friendly game of basketball.

Pictures of Day 1: https://shorturl.at/x5bt6 

Pictures taken by: Irene Schanda, Gert Schmidleitner, Andreas Geritzer