EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The first 470 European Championship was organised in July 1966 in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France). Sixty-three boats from three nations (Belgium, France and Switzerland) took part in this Championship.

The first European champions were Gabriel de Kergariou/Alain Cordonnier (France). Since 1966, the European 470 Championships have been held each year, except in 1970 which was the year of the first World Championship. Open to all at the beginning, the European Championship became restricted in 1968 to sixty boats with allocation of quotas per nations.

However, due to the rapid expansion of the 470 in Europe, the 470 Internationale asked organisers from 1972 onwards to organise an «open» week in parallel. A record of 170 participants was thus reached in 1973 in St-Cast (France) on the occasion of the 470’s tenth anniversary. This week remained open up to 1979, except for 1978, and was abandoned thereafter. In exchange, the maximum number of boats in the European Championship was increased to eighty in the early 1980s.

Up until 1985, the European Championship and the title of European Champion were reserved for crews from European nations and from the nations of the Mediterranean basin that were affiliated to the 470 Internationale (principally Israel but also at the time Egypt and the North African countries). Crews from other nations could be authorised to compete by invitation outside the quota and without access to the title. This explains how in1978 the New Zealanders Murray Jones/Andy Knowles won the event in front of the Russians Mikhail Kudrjavtsev/Edgar Terekhin who won the title.

From 1986, the European Championship was split into two, with a Championship reserved for men/mixed crews, still limited to eighty boats, and a Championship reserved for women, without quota and open to nations other than those competing for the title. The first Women’s European Championship was thus won by Jennifer J. Isler/Amy Wardwell (USA) and the first Women European Championship title was won by the French Florence Le Brun/Sophie Berge.

In 1988, on the occasion of the 470’s 25th anniversary in Saint Pierre Quiberon (France), the men/mixed European Championship was not limited in number but used the International Spring Cup format with a qualifying phase and a final phase in fleets. The 1973 participation record was beaten, with a total of 184 boats.

From 1999, the men/mixed European Championship became open to all nations, with the limitation on the number of boats increased to one hundred and twenty. The final ranking of the European Championships was obtained by subtracting all crews that were not competing for the title. Between 1999 and 2012, it so happened that seven of the fourteen men’s European Championships were won by the team that also won the overall Open Championship. This was even more common in the women’s fleet: a European boat won both the European and Open Championships in twelve out of the fourteen editions.

In 2003, for the 470’s thirtieth anniversary in Brest (France), the limitation in number of boats for the men & mixed European Championship was not applied and it has not been re-established since then. Finally in November 2012, the 470 Internationale decided to no longer authorise mixed crews in European Championships, thus aligning the regatta with the World Championships, a policy that stayed in force until 2018. Mixed crews were again allowed to participate in 2019, the championship being held just after the selection of the 470 as the equipment for the new mixed dinghy event for the 2024 Games, and a third title was planned for 2020 onwards. However, it was only in 2021 that the first mixed European Champions title was awarded, to Nitai Hasson & Saar Tamir (Israel), following the cancellation of the 2020 event due to the Covid pandemic.

For 2022, two titles were to be awarded, one for the first crew all categories, the other for the first mixed crew. However, only the second title was awarded due to an insufficient number of non-mixed entries. From 2023, an open European trophy all categories event is sailed at the same time as the Master’s Cup.

France has been by far the most titled nation in the European Championships, with forty-four medals, of which twenty-one were gold, eleven silver and twelve bronze, ahead of Sweden with sixteen medals of which eight were gold and Ukraine with eight medals of which seven were gold. Next come Great Britain with twenty-one medals and Spain with nineteen medals, with six gold for each of these nations, followed by Italy with twenty-three medals, ahead of Ukraine with eight medals, of which seven have been gold. Germany, including former East and West republics, totals thirty-six medals of which seven were gold.

The Ukrainian woman Ruslana Taran has won six European Championship titles, of which were five consecutive from 1995 to 1999 with Olena Pakholchik and one in 1993 with Svetlana Oleksenko. She retains the all-time record for titles, all categories included, over the 1966-2023 period.
The following crews each won three titles 

- The Frenchwoman Camille Lecointre in 2013 with Mathilde Géron and in 2019 and 2021 with Aloïse Retornaz.
- The Frenchman Jérémie Mion in 2013 and 2016 with Sofian Bouvet and in 2021 with Kevin Péponnet.
- The Spaniard Theresa Zabell won three titles, in 1991 and 1992 with Patricia Guerra and in 1994 with Begonia Via Dufresne.
- The Croatians Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic won three titles 2009, 2010 and 2011.
- Finally, the Frenchman Marc Bouët also won three titles in 1968, 1969 and 1974 with three different crews and won a silver medal in 1967.

As for the open event, it was won four times by the Australians Mathew Belcher & Will Ryan in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2019. Mathew Belcher had already won it
in 2011 with Malcolm Page, who had also won it in turn with Nathan Wilmot in 2002 and 2008.