Italian Nationals 2009

Marsala (Sicily):
Paolo Penco dominates the A class National Championship hosted by the Circolo Velico Marsala.

Under a shining Sicilian sun, the A Class National Championship took place in August - from 20th to 23rd - on the sailing field overlooking the Circolo Velico Marsala, the Marsala’s sailing club.
41 sailing crews – one coming from Germany and four coming from Switzerland - took part to the event.
Ideal whether conditions and a perfect wind favoured the Race Committee to organize the 9 races, in particular three races each day. Top organization of the regatta, together with the warm Sicilian hospitality which offered many social events, made the stay in Marsala definitely memorable for everybody, from the sailing crews down to their families.

The regatta started with a difficult first day with a strong wind gusting up to 8 m/s from 340°, rough sea and crossed waves, confirming the known characteristics of this sailing field with low seabed originating difficult, especially crossed waves.

Paolo Penco, immediately distinguished himself. He actually placed second in the opening race and then won the other two races leaving the rest of crews far behind. At the end of the first day Alberto Farnesi who won the first race placed second with three points behind Paolo Penco and the third place went to Giovanni Calabria with just one point behind.

On Saturday the direction of wind was unchanged but slowed down with picks of just 6 m/s, just fun! Paolo Penco consolidated his position in the Overall Results with 6 points, having won two races and placed second in another. Giovanni Calabria followed with 11 points while the third place went to Teo di Battista thus insidiously followed by three crews within three points distance: Alessandro Beretta, Alberto Farnesi and Gianluca Mini
On the last day the wind blew west and soon after north-west, almost a breeze with its 3 to 4 m/s. Teo di Battista was the leader on Sunday as he won the three scheduled races. But Paolo Penco was still the protagonist of the day; he scored DNS and DNF having realized that he had mathematical won the championship. He gathered 13 points. Second place for Giovanni Calabria with 16 points and third Teo di Battista with 16 points. Out of the podium: Alessandro Beretta, Gianluca Mini, Marco Rossi, Alberto Farnesi, Manuel Vaccari, Guido Longhi and Stefano Casadei (the only one with a V1 from Bimare with fibreglass hull).
Full results at:

http://www.classeaitalia.com/public/News/classifica%20marsala.pdf
As it usually happens, a big variety of materials & solutions were used by the competitors. In particular Paolo Penco used the wonderful platform from Scheurer with curved centreboards, a Fiberfoam mast and an Ashby sail. Giovanni Calabria ran with an Egner Flyer from 2009 with a FiberFoam mast and a Ullman sail. Teo di Battista had a V1 Bimare.