Italy: Trofeo Maurizio Saragoni @Cesenatico for Luca Maffessoli

Another win for Luca Maffessoli to dominate the 2014 Italian series. Detailed report as always by Pier Faccin / Italian Assoc / http://classeaitalia.it/ --
Cesenatico (FC): Luca Maffessoli wins the Trofeo Maurizio Saragoni in Cesenatico

During last weekend it was held in Cesenatico, the Maurizio Saragoni Trophy, the last national race before the A Class Italian Championship, the traditional closing of the agonistic season. This regatta, organized by the Circolo Vela Cesenatico, was dedicated to the memory of Maurizio, better known as Mimmo, who passed away two years ago. Mimmo was a member of the Sailing Club and a really appreciated National Race Officer of the Federazione Italiana Vela.

As expected, a large number of A Cat sailors from local fleets (i.e. the fleets of Cesenatico, Porto Corsini and Torre Pedrera) have participated to the regatta together with a few sailor of the fleets of Lake Maggiore, Lake Bracciano and Tuscany. Unfortunately no foreign crews have attended this appointment then the entry list has stopped at 22 sailors.

The weather forecast has been not exactly in line with one can expect from a typical Italian summer season: on Saturday, the Civil Protection Office dispatched a weather warning for the region of Emilia Romagna while on Sunday the forecast was about some scattered thunderstorms. Unfortunately the forecast was right. On Saturday 2 races was raced while some thunderstorms passed by ashore.

The first race with a wind from the East with an increasing intensity from 9 to 12 knots; in the second one the wind has further increased its intensity until reaching 18 knots with gusts over 20 knots after the fleet reached the middle of the first upwind leg. During the second turn a rainstorm then came and the wind dropped a little bit; however, the resulting reduced visibility on the race area has put in difficulties either the fleet or the race organization. In these difficult conditions only 5 crews was able to complete the race. On Sunday the weather greatly improved but some attention was paid to some thunderstorms ashore; however, no effect on the race course except some lack of wind.

In this complicated situation, only 2 races was raced: the first with a North West wind at 6 knots characterized by some bursts on the left. Then the fleet has waited almost until the time limit to get the last warning signal. With a light breeze of 6 knots from the North East, after a general recall and finally with good weather it was reached the minimum race number in order to enable the discard in the computation of the final score.

Luca Maffesoli from Associazione Nautica Sebina has been again victorious and with this statement he reaches the third victory in the season, here not counting his victory in the Vele di Pasqua regatta. His undisputed season’s domain is also ensured by his well-tested and perfectly tuned materials: an Exploder platform, a Fiberfoam mast, and a sail from Landenberger One Design, specially designed on the mast but also made with a more expensive and durable material.

Luca impressed everybody by his upwind and downwind speed, which has been evident even to a non-expert observer. He won two races on Saturday, including the one in the big wind despite not being unable to sail on the trapeze after breaking his stick in a strong impact with a very big wave. In the second place the well-known local sailor Roberto "Gege" Casadei, winner of the third race, followed by Riccardo Mellina, even him from the Circolo Vela Cesenatico and winner of the fourth race.

Both have sailed with a Bimare Zero MY 2014. Just outside of the podium, the former IACA President Stefano Sirri, from Congrega Velisti Cesenatico, always at the top positions in every races, but affected by a mast stay fault during the second race. In fifth place another sailor from Circolo Vela Cesenatico, Guido Pasolini followed by Stefano Casadei, Teo Di Battista, Graziano Tamburini, Luca Drei and for the first ten positions Giancarlo De Marinis. The complete ranking is reported in the website of the organizing sailing club: http://nuke.circolovelacesenatico.com/.

The regatta, sponsored by the Municipality of Cesenatico, was supported by Banca Popolare di Ravenna, by WD-40 Company together with Enervit.

Next meeting of the National Regattas Calendar of the A Cat Italia will be from the 28th to the 31st of August in Punta Ala (Tuscany) for the Italian A Class Championship organized by