Impressions – Csóka László

A dream week at Pichlingersee Regatta 2017

Posted on April 10, 2017 by csokasails

Finally we arrived safely back home from Pichlingersee Regatta 2017. I hadn’t got time to write in the blog last morning because races started 1 hour earlier than the previous days. In the F5-M Euro Cup stage we had great wind on Saturday morning, almost top A rig conditions, so the organizers were able to make 5 rounds (race for A and B group) in these great conditions. After that the wind stopped, and there was just one more round in breeze. On Sunday we started in slow wind, but it became stronger, so both days were great for racing.

On the first day in stronger wind conditions I know that I had to push as hard as possible because I may had some advantage against swing rig boats. I pay attention well and I won 5 of 6 races and made one second place. For the next day I have to just pay attention to Ivan Ermakov on the second place and Pavel Novotny on the third to manage the gap between us on the less risky way. I got some weed that day too but everything went well and finally I won F5-M. Pavel finished second and Ivan third, but there was some amazing races between them. Congratulations to them, it was great to see their performance!

The performance of the other Hungarian RCsailors:

9^th place: Horváth Zsolt

10^th place: Csóka László sen.

11^th place: Országh Tibor and 11^th with the same score Kiss Miklós

Sometimes they struggled with set up problems, and Miklós has lots of technical issues, but I think it was a big step to compete at Pichlingersee for the World Championship preparation for both of us.

If I look back on the whole week, it was great to test all the boat I would like to use at the Worlds, and mentally this good performance makes me confident after some bad moments with set up problems and poor performance of my own Ten Rater. Finally at Pichlingersee it seems most of the problems gone.

The organizers made a great job, a big thank you for them for the Regatta! I hope we will compete there next year too. 😊

Live your dreams!

Csóka László

Wind, Waves, Currents, Opatija

Posted on March 6, 2017March 6, 2017 by csokasails

Our trip to Opatija can’t be more different than that I thought it could. Before the competition I saw some forecast and it seemed we will have great wind on the first day almost B rig conditions, on the second day just a little breeze. Even so we had great wind speed conditions for both days, we could use the A rig, there was no need for B. In these conditions we are used to water without big waves.

This time we had really big waves because of special weather conditions around Opatija. The Hungarian guys have never competed on waves anything like this, so it was so much fun for us. It also meant that we struggled in the first part of the race with the boat set up. Also there was big current on the course so it was tricky for us too.

Photo: Kucsera Balázs

For me it was the same, and on the first day I tried to find the right set up but I didn’t reach my aim. My boat was instable and slower than the top competitors. Second day I pulled to top of the mast a little bit forward and I put more tension on the backstay. Finally I reached quite big stability and also speed. I enjoyed racing so much on the second day. That doesn’t mean that I was great also in racing. 😃 I made lots of mistakes so my performance wasn’t better than the previous day with a slower boat and less mistake. In total I think me and the Hungarian sailors learnt a lot about big wave racing and about the boat set up in these conditions.

Thank you for the organizers from the Opatija Sailing Club, we enjoyed the competition really much despite the weather conditions. We plan to compete here again next year!

The final results:

Live your dreams!

Csóka László

My best Pichlingersee Regatta ever

Posted on April 19, 2016April 19, 2016 by csokasails

Now I’m sitting at the University and thinking about last week’s regatta. I still not realized completely what happened there exactly. I always hope the best and also worked really hard but I did not expect such a good performance. I dreamed about it but not expected.

After the F5-10 victory on Wednesday I tried not to loose myself psychologically. In the F5-E I reached my aim, after some technological issues I kept my balance and finished 3rd overall. After the two classes I felt really happy, it was already my best Pichlingersee performance ever and the F5-M Europe Cup stage just started next day.

In the F5-M my aim was again to stay focused and not to fall apart. At the first races in light wind conditions I fight with Pavel Novotny and Massimo Morin a lot. Also after the first day we were in the first three places in overall. Second day the wind conditions became stronger, I worried about it, because I knew that there will be changes in the fleet others would be faster. Luckily I hadn’t got speed problems and managed to increase the lead in overall. Finally one of my dreams came true and I won the F5-M Pichlingersee Europe Cup Stage for the first time in my life. Pavel Novotny finished 2nd and Massimo Morin 3rd at the end in a really big battle between them and 4th Max Lehmann.

Thank you for Gyöngyösi Cecília and Országh Tibor who created the possibility for me in travel to compete all the 6 days and also thank you for all your support during the competition!

Thank you for my family for their support!

Thank you for all those guys who helped me before and during the Regatta!

And also a big thank you for those who cheered for me in these six days!

All my result from Pichlingersee:

1st place F5-10

3rd place F5-E

1st place F5-M

1st place in Combination of the 3 classes

Live your dreams!

Csóka László

Tricky Rijeka

Posted on March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 by csokasails

Yesterday we arrived back home from 22nd Rijeka’s Regatta. I’m really happy now because I was able to reach my goals. Much more than I expected.

In my previous blog post I wrote about what were my two aims for this Regatta. First I wanted to gain some speed in stronger conditions because I worked hard previously to figure out why I struggle when the stronger wind appear. Fortunately I reached this aim, on the second day with B rig I didn’t feel disadvantage in my boat speed compared to others. More tension on the shrouds brought the expected result.

My other goal was to finish in top 5. I had never finished better than 7th place on a croatian regatta. The conditions were tricky on this competiton, we had shifty wind all the time, lots of races were abandoned before the first mark because the wind shifted so much. In Hungary we usually have shifty wind conditions, I raced lots of times in these, therefore I didn’t feel bad about it. Honestly I enjoyed the races. Unfortunately this caused that we had just the qualification rounds, and can’t race in golden and silver fleet. The results finally based on the 6 qualification round results.

This time finally I was able to finish 4th in overall, I’m so happy about it! This is my best result ever in a croatian regatta.

For me the IOM spring season in Croatia is over, but I will surely compete there in autumn. Now I’m focusing on the 21. International Pichlingersee Regatta.

Here you can find the overall results: 22nd Rijeka’s Regatta results

Check Compass Magazin’s facebook page for pictures: Pictures on Compass Magazin

Thanks to my girlfriend for her support, and for the awesome pictures she photographed!

Thanks to the race organizers for this regatta! Next year I hope we will compete in Rijeka again!

Thanks to the hungarian team for their support, and for the awesome mood!

Live your dreams!

Csóka László

Starting point

Posted on February 24, 2016March 2, 2016 by csokasails

I’m glad to say my english language site is now open. I hope you will enjoy the blog as much as I enjoy writing my impressions about RC Sailing in it. In the future I would like to show my RC Sailing life.

At this point I’m preparing for Rijeka IOM Regatta with Hungarian friends. We have 3 more weeks for preparing method. In Rogoznica I really enjoyed competing with the croatian RC sailors in January. For me it was the first time when I truly felt that the gap between me and them started to shrink.
In the first two days in slow wind conditions (we have lots of slow wind condition competition in Hungary) I was able to race with the top sailors and of course I was really happy about itt hat I was ont he 3rd place in overall after two days of competing, and the only foreigner in the Golden fleet of the Croatian Nationals.

On the third day of Rogoznica the wind conditions changed, the wind started to blow stronger and my great form disappeared. I lost some speed with the boat, and mentally I coludn’t control my races, everything happened much faster. Luckily it was a really instructive competition for me, I learnt a lot, and I was happy that I made my best result in Croatia ever with a 7th place overall.

After Rogoznica I thought much about my boats speed. My Kantun S was fast in slow wind conditions but when the wind became stronger (we used „A” rigs it wasn’t a need for „B”) it’s speed slowly melted. Now I’m triing to figure out what happened, in the hungarian fleet I usually don’t have boat speed problems in these conditions.

When I will have the solution for this problem I’m going to share with you immediately.

Live your dreams!

Csóka László