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European Championships get underway after the first day was canned.

The A-Class Catamaran European Championships finally got underway in Riccione on Tuesday, after their opening day was postponed because the winds in the race areas were below the 5 kt class limit.  This, combined with a rather large beach break waves which were the hangover of high winds over in Croatia, would also have potentially risked too much damage to these lightweight carbon thoroughbreds.  Lessons were learned from the Punta Ala Worlds last year about the joys of launching and recovering in such surf, when Exploder ran out of their entire spare rudder winglet stock on day

Europeans get underway with the practice race.

Under the baking Italian sun with the thermometer reading 30 deg, the A-Cat Europeans took to the water for their practice race on Sunday.  The race start time had already been set back an hour by the Race Committee on the previous day, so was now scheduled at 15:00 sharp.  But there were no Delta flag rules in force, meaning that the sailors were free go to and fro afloat as they pleased, although most chose not to do and used the time to check their boats and redo that bad splice they found again. 

Prosecco Sailing at the NED/GER Nationals at Garda

Great report from the International German and Dutch Championships in Malcesine/Lake Garda. from Chris Stock.

Lake Garda is recognised by the international sailing community as one of the best sailing spots in the world, if not the best. Fantastic scenery, Italian dolce vita, clear fresh water and, above all, fairly reliable thermal winds leave little to be desired. It was therefore due to the attractiveness of the area that almost 80 top international sailors from the A-Cats in the Foiler and Classic divisions came to Malcesine for the joint Dutch and German championships.

A-Class Cat European Championships 2025 Preview

In just under 4 weeks’ time, many of the top A-Cat sailors in Europe, together with a few others from around the World, will assemble in Italy once again, this time for the European Championships at Riccione, just South of Rimini on the Adriatic coast. It will be an opportunity to continue those conversations and renew the class camaraderie forged back in September at the huge 2024 Worlds, when it was held over on the Western side of the Italian peninsula, at the Tuscan PuntaAla resort.