Eight exciting races and Hungarian silver and bronze in the overall standings at the Choco Cup in Balatonföldvár!

At the 16th edition of the Optimist regatta—by now an event with international recognition—152 youth sailors from ten countries came to the start this year. Fifty-two arrived from abroad, including World and European Championship medalists and top finishers. The overall winner came from among them as well: Slovenia’s Mihael Zobec, silver medallist at this year’s World Championship, won four of the eight races sailed. He was followed by János Keszler (BYC), who finished just two points behind him and, as the best Hungarian sailor, won three races. Overall bronze—and also best girl—went to Tamara Dávoti (BYC).

The organizing club, Spartacus, has traditionally been lucky with the wind. Of the wind directions typical for the venue, racing took place in a southwesterly on the first day, Tuesday 22 July, and in an easterly on Wednesday and Thursday. Race Officer Szabolcs Majthényi summed it up as follows:

“An exceptionally strong, high-level fleet came together for this year’s Choco Cup, and the wind on all three days made it possible to run realistic, varied racing. Tuesday started with a postponement, but soon a fine southwesterly arrived and the first race was spectacular for both groups. Later the wind began to get more uncertain, but even so we managed to complete the second race. On Wednesday we brought the start forward to 9:00, which paid off: compared to the usual Balatonföldvár easterly, the breeze had a slightly more southerly angle at 8–10 knots and held for three tricky races. On the closing day, Thursday, we had the classic easterly coming through the Tihany channel (in fact a northeasterly) and completed another three races. The wind started at 6–8 knots and later built to around 10 knots.”

The Central European Optimist Cup in Balatonföldvár—better known as the Choco Cup—is also famous for its family atmosphere. This year the popular “choco boat” went out again: thanks to supporters it distributed sweets—mainly muesli bars—fruit and drinks to the sailors on the water between races.

Ashore, Tuesday featured an ice-cream party and Wednesday a hamburger dinner. At Thursday’s prizegiving an interesting situation arose when presenting the special prize for the youngest competitor: it turned out that two Turkish sailors, Zara Yorulmaz and Basar Sarp Nalbantoglu, were born on the same day, 23 October 2017. Fortunately, there were two medals at hand…

Winners by category: Youth Boy – Mihael Zobec (Slovenia); Youth Girl – Tamara Dávoti (Balatonfüredi YC); Junior Boy – Matteo Haudek (Spartacus VE); Junior Girl – Ahnieska Madonich (Ukraine) (who is also a European Championship bronze medallist).

The first-placed sailor in every category finished inside the overall top ten—an outstanding achievement in a fleet of 152 boats.

The 2025 Choco Cup, the 16th in the series, was supported as main partners by Rooster, Galco Kötélgyár, and OneSails.

Results can be found here.

Photo: Zsuzsanna Szabados