Haluk Babacan

Haluk Babacan — Biography

Haluk Babacan is a Turkish sailor born in 1966 in Istanbul. He began his sailing career at the Marmara Sailing Club and later competed for Fenerbahçe, moving from the Optimist and Cadet classes into the Finn class.

He won the Istanbul and Turkish junior titles in the Finn class in 1984 and 1986, then claimed his first senior national championship in 1989 and repeated it in 1992, finishing runner-up in 1990 and 1995. His final title for Fenerbahçe came in 1997, when he won the Turkish Dragon-class championship alongside Yılmaz Canözer and Ege Ermeç. Capped more than 200 times for the national team, Babacan collected one gold, two silver and one bronze medal at Balkan championships held in Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey between 1985 and 1993, placed 24th in the Finn class at the Seoul Olympics, and finished third at the 1993 Eurolymp Races.

From 1995 onward he focused mainly on yacht racing, adding further international successes in that discipline, most recently leading the team that won the Match Race Cup 2009 organized by the Bodrum Sailing Sports Club.