Update from the German/Austrian Class

The German/Austrian Melges 24 Class, which also encompasses Hungary and several other newly developing central European countries, has been in touch to update us on news in their area.

There are several new boats joining the class this season. HUN 392 comes from France to Lake Balaton and is sailed by Stefan Vekony a former Hungarian Champion in Yardstick races. AUT 427 "Fritz" is a former "Strosek"-boat which is now reactivated by Thomas Schartelmüller at Mondsee near Salzburg and AUT 459 "Orca" is coming from Italy and is sailed by Peter Hoffmann on Woerthersee in Korinthia.

So in total there are now 9 boats in Austria + 2 in Hungary, 8-9 boats are active racers. This is excellent news and Austria could soon be the next country "lifting off" as an independent class organisation within IMCA, following in the footsteps of Switzerland which recently spun-off from the German Association to become an independent national class.

The German/Austrian Class will start racing in April and May with these races:

12./13. April: UBS-Sportboat-Cup at Kreuzlingen, Lake Constance
01.-04. May: MAIOR rave at Kiel, Baltic Sea
10.-12. May: Attersee Cup at Seewalchen, Attersee
17.-18. May: Melges24 Cup at Tutzing, Starnberger See

The Class is working hard to have as many boats starting there as possible due to the fact 7-10 boats are already located in Italy to sail all the Volvo Cup races until Worlds 2008 and therefore cannot join our national circuit as in the years before.

All boats from other classes are warmly invited to join us, links to Notice of Races and Entry Forms can be found on WWW.MELGES24.DE