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Ours Skimmed to Gold

Students of Gdansk University of Technology (GUT) returned form the Polish Schools of Higher Education Sailing Championships with the gold medal. There were 34 other schools from all over Poland competing in the Omega class regatta on Niegocin Lake, but our squad from the GUT AZS Sailing Section didn't give any of them a chance. The competitors were from universities, academies, other universities of technology and private schools of higher education, and here the technical schools clearly outclassed the 'rest of the world'. The competition lasted from 22nd to 25th September 2008.

The GUT team that arrived at Wilkasy near Giżycko comprised 12 members, i.e. four three-crew boats. In the team classifications they beat 82 other crews. Individually, our Mufinka (Muffin) crew came second, whereas another of our yachts, the Barka Regata (Regatta Barge), came fifth to close the group of clear leaders.

'The crew that came sixth was as many as twenty points behind us,' stresses Michał Wojtowicz, a third-year informatics student at GUT. Michał has been sailing since he was five. His grandfather competed professionally and his father also sailed. Asked what he likes best about this sport, Michał answers that whereas in most other competitions you try to defeat other people, in sailing you only struggle with yourself and the weather.

In the individual classifications the best yacht turned out to be Jędrek (Andy), flying the colours of the Silesian University of Technology. Gandalf of the Warsaw University of Technology came third. The two remaining GUT crews, which failed to get into the team competition, came 12th and 24th.

'We achieve very good results thanks to the fact that our members sail intensively during the season,' explains Jakub Pankowski, the coach and guardian of the Sailing Section at GUT.

Bearing in mind that the sailing season already begins towards the end of May and basically lasts until the very end of September, one has to concede that it must require considerable cunning and dedication for the students to sail and not neglect their academic obligations.

'This isn't our first success this season,' enthuses Aleksander Fereniec, the Mufinka steersman who has finished his fifth year at the Faculty of Ocean Engineering and Ship Technology and has now studying management there. 'We've sailed in seven Polish Cup races, competing against some excellent, very experienced sailors, not only students. After three of these races we were among those standing on the victors' podium – once we came second and twice we came third.

'Although our team did not return with a medal from the Polish Omega Class Championships, which took place in the first week of September at Kamień Pomorski, we did 'earn' ourselves a new boat. At the end of the competition the sponsor drew a steersman's lot for a new yacht. This time I was lucky and my name was selected,' smiles Aleksander Fereniec.

The students of the GUT Sailing Section are currently preparing for a new adventure. At the end of November they plan to set off on a long sea voyage, Genoa-Genoa course, on the training sailing ship Pogoria. To describe what the students feel about sailing this ship, suffice to say that she has a displacement of 342 tons, is 47 metres long and her 15 sails cover a total area of a thousand square metres. But their actual experiences will be the subject of another report.

The best GUT regatta crews:

The steersmen of other GUT boats were Jakub Dumara and Tomasz Fydrychowicz