In July, I (Lucas Patrick) had the opportunity to compete at the 2025 29er European Championships held at Fraglia Vela Riva, a club on the northern edge of Lake Garda. For this regatta I had Joel Beashal on the wire from Lake Macquarie, NSW.

The event was a record-breaking, bringing together 251 teams from 29 countries, making it the largest 29er European Championships ever. The training conditions before the event was classic Garda breeze with light morning breeze called the Pele from the north and strong afternoon Ora winds from the South. We took this opportunity to train with crews from New Zealand, Sweeden, Germany and Italy. However, during the event, storms in the area caused the Pele to last for most of the day and prevented the Ora from developing. We mainly raced in the Pele, which were often quite shifty and ranged from 5-18knt.

We had a tough qualifying series and missed out on making the gold fleet by just 8 points, which was disappointing. The last day of qualifying was cancelled because of storms, which stopped the thermal breeze.  As a result, we were only able to race 5 out of the 9 qualifying races. The standard across the fleet was high, and every point counted.

In the end, we finished 2nd in the silver fleet and 47th overall, a result we’re proud of, especially in such a massive fleet and with limited training together. The regatta was an incredible learning experience, I made new friends and racing at Lake Garda was a bucket list activity.

Big thanks to my parents and everyone back home at RQYS for helping us get there. I am looking forward to what’s next.

By Lucas Patrick