Spring Championship @Circolo Vela Arco: Event Report

PRESS RELASE sent by Pier Faccin / Italian Association.

Arco, 3rd June 2014 - Arco (TN): Misha Heemskerk wins the A Cat European Spring Championship
Misha Heemskerk won in an incredible way the A Cat European Spring Championship, which closed on the 2nd of June at Arco, on Lake Garda. His scores were simply amazing: he earned a total of 6 points over 7 races discarding a second place. In an interview in the end of the regatta, which is available on the Circolo Vela Arco Facebook page, he said that his victory “wasn’t easy”. Probably that was modesty, but still Luca Maffessoli from Associazione Nautica Sabina, who finished second, gave him a hard time indeed.

Luca, after leading the provisional result list at the end of the first day, had to leave the position to Misha, who raced perfectly in the strong wind, which characterized this regatta. Anyway, Luca was the only one who won one of the 7 races among all the other participants. Thilo Keller from Germany won the third place, followed by Helmut Stumhofer, as well from Germany, Roeland Wentholt from Denmark, the Italians Paolo Penco from ANS, Giuseppe Colombo from Unione Velica Maccagno and Alberto Farnesi from Livorno. Then, Pieterjan Dwarshuis from Netherlands, and Bob Baier from Germany for the first ten positions. The overall results can be found on the Circolo Vela Arco official site: http://circolovelaarco.com/

From the meteorological point of view, Saturday was the worse day. The so called “Vinessa”, a characteristic but infrequent southern wind, started to blow early in the morning, with an intensity of about 20 knots which created short and sharp waves difficult to handle for any small boat and catamaran. The start of the first race was planned for 13:00, but it had to be postponed to 15:30, when, finally, as the wind has been a little bit affordable, the Race Committee began the starting procedure and 37 available boats have started.

As the wind got even slower, more crews took part in the second race, which finished with 44 crews in total. On Sunday, the wind had an intensity of 16-18 knots, and allowed to complete three interesting races. On Monday, the wind started to blow after a while, then it stabilized on 13 knots. Two races were held before a storm started to rage.

The first edition of this regatta has been successful: 64 entries in total, which means that since now this will be an important appointment in the calendar of agonistic European season for the A Class. The majority of the participants was formed by foreign helmsman, mostly from Germany (17) and Netherlands (7), but also from Switzerland, Great Britain, Denmark, Austria, Spain and Ireland.

The hospitality of the sport club was excellent, in fact plenty of pasta was offered to the crews after the races and a “Social Dinner” was organized on Sunday for everybody. The organization of the races was coordinated by a careful Race Committee, headed by the Italian Sailing Federation Board Member Angelo Insabato.

Technically speaking, Landenberger One Design sails were the most diffused between the top rated. Misha used DNA platform and mast, while Luca Maffessoli preferred an Exploder platform and a Fiberfoam mast; the same mast was chosen by Thilo Keler, who, instead, raced with a platform called Arrow MK2 built by himself. Despite the fresh wind that blew the first days, nobody took advantage from the foiling due to the choppy sea condition on the race course. Only some participants could sail on the wire downwind, according to the latest A Class handling technique. On Monday the conditions were better, and almost everybody could take advantage from downwind sailing on the wire.

The next appointment is the National Regatta, which will take place on 14th and 15th June at Unione Velica Maccagno, on Lago Maggiore. For info: http://www.uvmaccagno.it/