EuroCup in wet and Windy Fort Mahon

EuroCup '99, the 10th EuroCup was held in Fort Mahon no the northern French coast near Le Touquet. It was plagued with bad weather.

There was an ambitious itinerary with more than 50 fliers competing for titles in 5 disciplines. The event got underway with an opening ceremony on Thursday evening. With the prospect of poor weather a pilots meeting was called for 9:00 the following morning.

Friday

Matters got underway early on Friday morning. The wind started clean but strong and Team Ballet got underway in 20-25mph wind off the sea. Unfortunately too many teams made too many mistakes. The scores show three National Champion Teams bring up the rear with Vortex (from the UK in their first Euro Cup). The wind increased. Team ballet was completed and so the scores counted. By early afternoon however not only were there gust approaching 40mph but the strong wind pushed the tide in earlier than expected. As a result all other disciplines were abandoned and had to be re-flown.

Saturday

Saturday was atrocious, winds gusting over 60mph. No flying was contemplated in the morning and the day was abandoned at lunchtime, as there was no sign of improvement.

On Saturday evening there was a pool party at the Aquaclub. If we could not fly there seemed to be a determination to party. By the end of the evening there was a large contingent of flyers in the pool although not everyone brought swimming togs. Fully clothed or underwear was just judged acceptable even if not intended by all perhaps alcohol had something to do with this lack of modesty.

Sunday

Sunday morning was potentially even worse than the previous two days. The wind had only abated slightly but was now accompanying thunder and lightening. A wind recess was announced at the 8.00 pilots meeting. By the next meeting at 10:00 prospects were much better. Competition was to be held in three arenas but it was likely that the scores from one discipline would settle each class.

As it turned out the weather improved no end but each class was settled on only one discipline because the event had apparently to be completed by 13:00!. The PA was still available and the sun was shining, so just to make a point, all the teams put on some stunning displays of their ballets. Who knows how the results might have been effected if those efforts could have been taken into account!

At least most classes were able to accept that the results were based on what had been judged. A final point of controversy came about as a result of a technical problem which saw the originally posted results of the Individual dual line competition overturned and potentially still protested.

Full results can be found at http://www.
multinet.de/stack/comps/stack_ec99.html. The first three in each class were, when we left Fort Mahon, as follows:

Sunday Afternoon - Picardy Cup

The afternoon had apparently been reserved for two prize money competitions. The first was for single line kites and appeared to involve the measuring the angle between the kite and its tethering point. Your correspondent could not make out the precise rules, it all looked very technical and a bit strange.

The other competition was the tricks concept known well to those who have attended UK festivals as It's-a-Trickout. Robin South (UK Experienced Indi Champ '99) did particularly well in this carrying off 2^nd prize.

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Well done to the UK Team. Evolver, Bi Dance, The Robertshaw Brothers and Mark Lummus took mutiple podium places. Robin Smith 2nd in Picardy Cup Trickout.

Photos from EuroCup '99

Crosslines qualify for World Championships