Joao Allen, Manuel Pedro Seoane, Luc Michon and Francisco Souto following the agreement in Valença do Minho to celebrate in Vigo the European (Photo Pedro Seoane)

The city of Vigo has taken over this weekend of the Fouesnant on the west coast of France, as the venue of the next European Laser Master Championship, which will be held within the week of 2018. It will be the first time that an official continental or global Olympic sailing competition takes place in Galician waters. In Vigo this historic event is organized by the Club Marítimo de Vigo, with the collaboration of the Liceo Marítimo de Bouzas, from 6 to 12 October next year. After the European success in France last week, there are really important expectations of participation for Vigo. The Galos have managed to bring together about 200 ships from 20 countries and from the five continents, so the objective is to reach 250 ships.

In Fouesnant within the standard class the victory was for a Spanish, for the bat Carlos Martínez of the Real Club de Regatas de Santiago de la Ribera, and in radial the rule was total by the British lasers who took the podium. The best Spanish place was for the Catalan Mónica Azón of the El Masnou Nautico Club in Barcelona. In the institutional part he served as representative of the Spanish candidacy in Fouesnant, the laserista lusitano del Clube Naval Povoense Serafim Gonçalves, which is part of the Organizing Committee of Vigo 2018. The Portuguese participation in the historic achievement of this European celebration in Vigo has been very important since it has largely been due to the interest of the Portuguese laser class and in particular to the prestigious international Olympic judge Joao Allen, who defended the Spanish candidacy to the International Federation, EURILCA based in Geneva. Allen got the support of the European Assembly, after getting the support of several countries in the case of Portugal, France, Hungary and Italy, among others... he is therefore the strong man within the Organizing Committee, along with the French Luc Michon who is responsible for the class at European level.