Sailing Cortez

Archive for November 28th, 2009

The last few years have seen some major changes in the club sailing scene of Corfu. It doesn’t seem so long ago when there were only two clubs,the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club – Corfu which was part the Athens based HORC and NAOK catering to dinghy sailing. HORC – Corfu evolved into IOK (Corfu Sailing Club) and the two clubs have since been essentially one and the same, sharing members, board and premises. Some years ago NAOK started getting involved in offshore sailing and started their own race series as well as an offshore sailing school. About the same time the Corfu Sailing Club acquired a dinghy sailing division!

And since 2007 there is also the Gouvia Marina Sailing Club, who also have their own sailing school and race series too.

Essentially the clubs have divivded amongst themselves the organisation of the races, but they all take part in everyone’s races.

Last weekend saw the first race of the season, to Kassiopi and back.It was a cahnace for many to see how the (new to Corfu…) One Design Class Beneteau 25s fared. And they fared well!! There are 3 boats of this type in Corfu now, Montana, privately owned and sponsored by http://www.boatmansworldcorfu.com, Stormy, owned by NAOK, and Alkinoos, owned by the Corfu Sailing Club. Two of the boats took part in the Kasiiopi race, Montana and Stormy. Montana came 4th on the first leg and 3rd coming back while Stormy was 2nd going and 1st coming back!! It was a classic Corfiot race with a fair amount of wind albeit of the fluky kind… But a good time was had by all.

The next race is to Preveza and back. Notorious for it’s lack of wind, this race usually doesn’t attract many entries due also to the fact it starts on a Friday.