How things were before – commentary by Filip Zlatan Zoričić

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SOSW 2013
Sailing legend Filip Zlatan Zoričić reminded us of how things used to be in the regatta which was the predecessor of the Split Olympic Sailing Week.
– It all started in 1973 with the regatta which was then called Memorijal Žarko Dešković. Competitions were held in classes finn, FD and 470. I sailed on the Flying Dutchman on which I started to sail in 1968 and in 1071 I competed with the club's boat – Zlatan went back in time to remind us that the last edition of Memorijal Žarko Dešković had its last regatta in 1977.
But as early as 1976 Adriatic Grand Prix was established where the existing fleet was expanded with another class - laser, and on that first year, regatta was held in October, at the end of the season.

– It was a pleasure to participate in those regattas because they all had the prefix – International and for us natives they were also qualifications for the national team and the national championship. Winning in this regatta had a significant meaning for us because back then we only had three foreign regattas: San Remo, Kiel and Hyeres, and today our boys and girls can participate in three strong foreign regattas within one month – says Zlatan.

He remembered his adversaries in the regatta field where he always seemed to battle it out with Dušan Puh from Slovenia.
– It was always a suspenseful fight for the first place with Puh. I used to sail then with a crew member, now unfortunately late Milo Grbavac and later on with Branko Širola. I have to point out that among the fleet of heavy soloists of the Olympic Finn, our own Mime, Minski Fabris, was way ahead of his competition. No one could even come close to him on the finish line.
This is how we sailed and fought on the Adriatic Grand Prix, a regatta that had a short pause in 1979 and 1980 because of the 1979 Mediterranean games which were held in Split.

- Unfortunately there was another pause during the Homeland war in 1993 and 1994 and noting that the Adriatic Grand Prix, predecessor of todays SOSW was always held in May. Our yachtsmen used to start their season later, meaning that they would head out to the sea for their first wins in March and today's now 9th Split Olympic Sailing Week follows that tradition – Zoričić summed up, stating that he still follows the regatta with great interest as well as the progress of all young skippers, while he still cherishes and fulfils his own passion for sailing, regardless of his age and experience in the cockpit of the sailboat Barba Branko.