Euro Footy Grand Prix
2011
Konstanz
Germany
9th/10th July

The 5th Euro Footy Grand Prix was held in the Port city of Konstanz on the site of the German Swiss Motorboat club. There has been a  successful Footy Grand Prix held by the International Footy Class Association (IFCA) since 2007 and this has proven to be most helpful in helping the class develop in europe and beyond. The first three grand Prix were held in the UK, 2007 Bournville and 2008/09 Birkenhead following this a most successful event was held at Wroclaw, Poland last year 2010.

Event Organisation
We have to thank the commodore of Club Konstanz for the organization of this RC Regatta. It has been organised in accordance with the
 guidelines of the German Sailing Verbandes. Under the leadership of the clubs President, Marc Orthmann who has worked with its members to organise the catering, race Committee and transport.  Thus, upon arrival at the venue on July 8th each participant was greeted by the President
and located in the neighborhood. The last participant was met at Zurich airport and after the event taken back to the airport for his flight home to Spain.
For the families of attending skippers leisure activities on the island of Reichenau were organized.

The Participants of the Regatta:

Unfortunately the repeated postponement of the date, and other factors associated with the costs of running the regatta on Lake Constance it was not an easy event to get of the ground consequently the dat was moved to July with approval of the IFCA. This led to the invitation to attend the event being posted quite late and thanks go to Jonas Wirz for creating the English language sign in on www.footy-sailing.com forum. In the end seventeen skippers signed up on July 9, 12 Footy sailors from Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Britain, Austria and Germany.

The Implementation of the Regatta:

Due to the illness of the intended race officers I took over this function. I was supported by Rainer and Ina Kelm. Two observers supported me and although at first there were some communication difficulties none of speaking a common language, we worked it out by the common language of sailing.
After a skippers briefing on Saturday morning,  we opened the regatta. It was explained that the regatta was to be held under the current Racing Rules of Sailing 2009-2012 including the Annex E (racing rules for remote control boats). No deviations from the Regulations were made. A review of the boats in the box (Box with internal dimensions 305 mm x305 mm x153 mm) where all passed sucessfully.

The wind conditions were, for the small Footy Boat, not particularly optimal. Initially we raced with changing wind directions from Northeast to Southerly and back again. The wind in the morning was quite light 1-2 Bft. Around noon it strengthened slightly to 2-3 Bft however this change in direction meant that an accumilation of seagrass came with it. This enabled us to alter the course to include runs. A number of failures were recorded. This included in particular the boats our British friends with their ICE (design by Roger Stollery), because of the conditions with the continuing light winds, the light and narrow boats were quite good in the race. As shown, at this event the boat BREITHORN by Marcus Wahlin (the later winner of the race) and the Depron Footy Box by Phil Tyler (3rd place)

The Boats:
Behind the boat by Marcus the Breithorn, there were no big surprises. Strongly represented was the ICE mostly sailed by the five participants from the United Kingdom, Germany also had five skippers. Werner Hauer of Austria was with his Footy No. 5, Robert Broccoletti with his P12D construction and Flavio Faloci with an excellent built Folletto participated in the race.
Maximilian Kelm is a Micro Wizard to racing. Thorsten Hochstadt from Spain had to fight with his previous owner. Jonas Jung came with my boat borrowed an ICE (GER 01) for a first time footy racer this was a pretty good deal.

The Results:

Winner of the Euro Footy Grand Prix 2011 was  BREITHORN Marcus Wahlin from Switzerland (middle),
2nd place occupied Werner Hauer (right) from Austria,
3rd place went to Phil Tyler (left), Switzerland.

I am particularly pleased that four teenagers attended the regatta. The winner of the Junior prize was CJ Vice from the UK, the second place
Maximilian Kelm finished and the 3rd Place went to Jonas Jung both from Constance. 4th place Victoria Broszek from the UK. She had very bad luck because her footy despite several attempts could not be made ready for use.

The trophy for the best team went to Austria ahead of Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain.

The Footy Design Award was won, quite unexpectedly for him, Marcus Wahlin for his BREITHORN. The 2nd place went to Flavio Faloci and the 3rd to Werner Hauer.
The Footy Design Award was presented for the third time. Angus Richardson with his Moonshadow and Roger Stollery with its ICE are previous recipients.

Thomas Grimm
(please be aware this article was translated by the webmaster from the original German, I hope acurately however if there are any errors or ommisions I appologise in advance)

Result

1 Marcus Wahlin, SUI 120, 16 p.
2 Werner Hauer, AUT 152, 19 p.
3 Phil Tyler, SUI 42, 28 p.
4 Phil Broszek, GBR 144, 37 p.
5 Peter Gernert, GER 86, 37 p.
6 CJ Vice, GBR 48, 38 p.
7 Maximilian Kelm, GER 67, 61 p.
8 Jonas Jung, GER 01 (boat rentals), 68 p.
9 Roberto Broccoletti, ITA 18, 71 p.
10 Flavio Faloci, ITA 150, 80 p.
11 Thorsten Hochstadt, ESP 11, 91 p.
12 Victoria Broszek, GBR 146, 91 p.