The 2013 J/22 European Championships had an excellent turn-out of 28 teams from across Europe with teams representing The Netherlands, Germany and France. With so many good teams, it was busy on the starting line and at the mark roundings, causing many boats to flip-flop from the front of the fleet to the back more than once in the 11 races sailed. The French and German teams were really surprised by the erratic flow of the current and wind conditions in the Oosterschelde – reason for no less than three general recalls in the third round on Saturday – and somewhat variable wind. Stan Heltzel, regatta chief of the Dutch J/24 Class organization, was very pleased with the facilities and the organization, “We have 18 Dutch teams sailing and that is a strong participation for our fleet. The J/22 has strict one-design class rules, is a very affordable boat and, therefore, is particularly suitable for student teams.” After 11 races, Holger Neuhaus from Dortmund, Germany and his team on BANANA JAMA (Daniel Scheer and Jörg Friedlein) were crowned 2013 European Champions after a cliff-hanging tie-breaker with a 1-7-5-2-1-1-4-1-1-5 record for 28 points net. Starting in first after the initial day of racing, they never looked back and sailed a beautiful series to take their first big J/22 win. Team BIGLIFT / JAM SESSION of TU Delft, led by Rikst Dijkstra was second with an equal number of points with a scorecard of 4-2-2-8-5-3-1-3-6-1 for 28 points net, but lost the tie-breaker based on number of first places. Finishing third was Frenchman Charles Nichaux sailing JAZZY with a 8-4-14-10-2-5-16-2-2-8 for 57 net points. Rounding out the top five were two more Dutch boats, fourth was Peter van Doornmalen’s GAP with 63 points net and fifth was Misja Adamczyk’s XJE Sailing Team with 73 points net. For more J/22 Europeans sailing information, visit here.