The 4 Nations Championships have concluded and what a superb weekend of challenging conditions it was! As previously mentioned, the Friday had been cancelled due to 42kt gusts, leaving the sailors free to explore the bars and fleshpots of Hellevoetsluis or further prep their boats.
The opening day of the 4+ Nations Championships, at the Dutch cat playground of the Hellecat club, had been cancelled due to 35kt and more gusts, and the race committee sensibly cancelling the racing in good time rather than keep sailors at the club just waiting for the go home call. Therefore, Saturday was the first time competitors had a chance to race. However, many decided to sit today out too, as the 25-27 kt gusts forecast, particularly for the first two race’s time period, made the more cautious and risk averse sailors choose discretion over valour.
Italian A-Class National Championship – Gaeta.
Close racingLamberto Cesari reports.
The Italian A-Class Championship took place in Gaeta, between Rome and Naples, but the opening day was unfortunately lost due to the windless weather. Racing finally got underway on Saturday, when three races were successfully completed.
European A-Cat sailors may be aware of next weekend’s event at the renowned Hellecat club near Hellevoetsluis. It is the 4 Nations Championships, and has attracted much interest from sailors within and North of the Alps, and now some 11 countries joining in.
Cagliari, at the southern end of Sardinia, has been chosen to host the 2027 A-Class Catamaran World Championships.
With racing on the warm waters of the Gulf of Cagliari, this spectacular venue has already hosted many major international sailing events, including the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta, and is well known to Nacra 17 and 49er sailors.
Another legend passes. Horst Kopp was within the heart of the class for much of our existence. this lovely guy will be sadly missed by all who knew him. Ian 'Storm' Johnston delivers this eulogy to him.
Vale Horst Kopp
It is with great sadness that we report Life Member Horst Kopp passed away on Saturday 20th June 2026 surrounded by his family members.
Our condolences to wife Priscilla, son Michael, daughter Peachy, son-in-law John, and grandchildren Alex, Harry, Paddy, and Cece.
The party's over, it's time to call it a day, they've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away… And the A-Cat 2026 European Championships come to an end. The final day turned out to be Thursday this time. Out on the Mar Menor, race officials went out at 10am to monitor real world conditions rather than relying on forecasters or computer algorithms, sending back reports every 15 mins to Juan Antonio, the PRO, who needed to formulate a plan of Go/No GO for the final scheduled race day.
Congratulations to Jacek Noetzel and Kuba Surowiec on their 2026 European Champions titles!
Great sailing!
It was a 12pm start on the fourth day of the A-Cat Euros. The PRO had seen the forecast and hoped to manage accordingly. The wind was due to pick up to unspeakable speeds later in the afternoon, so he wanted to squeeze a couple of cheeky races in, at not least so the sailors got that precious second points drop discard after completing a 9 race series.
It was back to business as usual today after the sailor’s traumas of Tuesday. The overnight high winds from the Northeast had left a decent bit of chop though, and this was arriving onshore to scare people, not to mention also leaving big chunks of palm tree bark scattered about the boatpark. The committee decided for these waves to quieten down a little before hoisting the Delta flag for the Classics to allow them onto the beach at about 1pm.
