Report by Jean-Gabriel Charton:

From the 28th to the 30th December 2016, 47 crews were gathered in Nice to compete during the traditional Christmas Regatta. This impressive participation is a record for this event and made it the biggest event of the Star Class in Europe this winter.

The 2016 issue was the 60th anniversary of this historical event of the Star Class. The death of Jacques Puisségur who was for a long time its manager and the ringmaster of the tombola where everbody wins, also added to the emotion and importance of this date. In his memory, the name of the regatta will be "Christmas Regatta - Trophy Jacques Puissegur" in order to thank him for his involvement.

His son Jean-François Puissegur took up the torch and thanks to his commitment, 47 crews met to fight. Among them, many champions of the serie like Xavier Rohart, Emilios Papathanasiou, Fritjof Kleen or Roberto Benamati but also enthusiasts representing 12 nationalities from all over the world. Seduced during his last visit, Joshua Revkin pleased us to come back from USA, sailing this time in family with his father Jim. Thank you guys!

Weather conditions were changing during the three days of racing, as announced the day before during the briefing by the president of the race committee M. Dominique Giorgi. He’s also a Star owner of the fleet of Nice. This meeting was the opportunity to welcome all competitors and even more through a welcome aperitif. Diego Negri came as a neighbor and a friend of the regatta.

The first day brought together the typical conditions of Nice in winter combining sun, flat sea and thermal wind coming from land. What all the participants call year after year "Champagne sailing!". It allowed the race committee to organize two races before returning the fleet ashore for a bbq under the sun before enjoying the terrace of Club Nautique de Nice. At the end of the first day, the podium was made up of Giampero Poggi / Manlio Corsi (ITA 8497 / FDM) followed by Emilios Papathanasiou / Antonis Tsotras (GRE 8434 / GR) and Jean-Gabriel Charton / Olivier Terrol (FRA 8266 / Ni).

On the second day, the fleet left the port after a short delay due to uncertain weather conditions. The thermal wind was much weaker than usual and finally a strong east wind obliged the committee to send back the whole fleet to shore.

On the third and last day, 3 races were run in the traditional weather conditions with a wind weakening for the last one. The departure from the harbor in the morning was accompanied by the sunrise allowing all the crews to photograph themselves in front.

If you have friends who have participated or if you have followed the event on facebook, you see exactly what we mean! At the end, Giampero Poggi and Manlio Corsi won this 60th Christmas Regatta - Trophee Jacques Puissegur for their first participation, followed by Roberto Benamati with Alessandro Vongher and Emilios Papathanasiou with Antonis Tsotras.

The organization of the regatta would like to thank warmly the SSL for its support since many years and for its contribution to the success of the event. This year again the regattas were broadcasted live on Internet with live tracking 2D. To celebrate the anniversary, dozens of caps were offered to competitors with the SSL logo.

We hope to see you again next year and even more participants. We are doing our best to let you live a magical experience on our favorite boat.

The Nice Star Fleet wish you the best for 2017, many successes in your life and in your Star races, of course. Results categories:
1st Master = Giampierro POGGI (ITA)
1st Grand Master = Lorenz Zimmermann (SUI)
1st Exhalted Grand Master = Daniel Wyss (SUI)
1st Woman = Claudia Maria Graber (AUT)
1st Junior = Marcel Ceelen (NED)