LOTTO 49er Grand Prix Gdynia

Today we start the fourth edition of the LOTTO 49er Grand Prix Gdynia – Racing will be near the beach for the next three days where fans can watch some of the best sailboat racing in the world and some of the worlds best sailors.

Today at 10:00 am in front of the  ‘Klif’ shopping centre, which is a partner of the regatta, took place a press conference with representatives of the organizers, partners and competitors.

Director of Gdynia Sports and Recreation Centre, Mr. Marek Łucyk said to reporters, “The upcoming regatta LOTTO 49er Grand Prix Gdynia is another event that proves our city is the capital of Polish sailing.  After the great success of Gdynia Sailing Days we are pleased that other institutions and people want to organize great sailing events in Gdynia.  The 49er class as one of the most spectacular in the world and is a perfect showcase of sailing to residents and visitors of Gdynia. ”

To give the audience opportunity to see what is happening during the race, the sailing village is located on the beach near the entrance to the seaside boulevard.  Races will be nearby the shore, and will be accompanied by a commentary by one of the most famous Polish sailing commentators and journalists Dariusz Urbanowicz.

Robert Majewski, regional director of LOTTO – sponsor of the event, said: “Gdynia is the perfect place to conduct sports events, and we want to be associated as a natural partner of Polish sport.  Sailing as a discipline is very prestigious and spectacular, we could not miss the opportunity to organize the 49er Grand Prix ”

Anther guest was Łukasz Przybytek (ENERGA Sailing Team), an Olympian from London, who is one of the favorites of Grand Prix Gdynia.  Łukasz Przybytek represents Gdańsk AZS AWFiS and starts in the crew with Marcin Rymer – “Although I do not racing with my regular crew, I treat this race very seriously and this is for me one of the stages of preparation for the most important events of the season.  What is very important in this race is the fact that we are very close to the public, which is rare in Olympic sport. ”

There were also one of the most famous Polish ocean sailors – Zbigniew ‘Gutek.’  Gutkowski  is a special guest of Grand Prix Gdynia.  Zbyszek told how his adventure began with high speeds on the water, and that happened on the 49er class boat. Gutek said that a yacht sailing on the ocean is obviously something completely different, but the experience he acquired in 49er was very useful for effective and fast sailing on a large boat. – “Feeling you get on the boat like 49er is invaluable even when you sail on the ocean.  We learned that even the slightest movement of rudder allows to speed up, and that’s the point whether we are racing 50 meters from the beach or thousands of miles from the coast “

LOTTO 49er Grand Prix is not only a competition on the water, but also a lot of attractions on land.  Sport rivalry has been enriched by a program of recreation and entertainment directed to the audience.  On the beach in Gdynia there is game area for children and adults, where you can win great prizes, including – cruise on VIP  boat and watching competition from the water. The great attraction of regatta will be night race, which will take place on Saturday, August the 3rd, at 10:00 pm.

During first day of competition we had five races.  The weather was very favorable, wind was around 7-10 knots from the north.  Races took place very close to the shore so inhabitants and tourists could easily watch struggle of our sailors.  By far the best is British crew GBR 999 James Peters / Ed FitzGerald, they won four races.  Second place is taken by German crew Erik Heil / Thomas Ploessel – bronze medalists from the recent European Championship.  In third place is the top Polish crew Thomas Januszewski and Marcin Nowak (AZS UWM Olsztyn), who finished races respectively on 4th, 7th, 4th, 2nd and 2nd place.  Łukasz Przybytek and Marcin Rymer at the moment occupy the sixth position.

“The race committee work went smoothly and quickly as they conducted today’s races.  We did not have to wait too long for the races which is very important for us, “- said Thomas Januszewski.  Crewman Jacek Nowak said: “We’re delighted to welcome such great international sailors in Gdynia.  The British envy us a place like Gdynia, because in their country there is no possibility to perform races so close to the audience.  Talking about the competition – the level of our races is very high, but we believe that we can improve and we will fight for victory. “

Agnieszka Gruszka – race officer, said, “The day was perfect.  At the briefing with skippers I said that I will try to set the course as close to the shore as possible.  Thanks to a very good wind direction it was entirely manageable.  Colorful spinnakers were really spectacular and I saw that people on the beach and boulevard had a good time while watching the races “

Tomorrow we have six races so the fight for victory in the entire regatta will be exciting.

Results, reports and photos you will find on our website: http://49ergrandprix.com

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Results after 5 races: