Tymek Bendyk, 2016 Polish National Champion.

Polish A Cat President, and World number 4, Jacek Noetzel, reports on what was a great Polish Nationals at Sopot.

From 19th to 21st of August A-class Polish Championships were held in Sopot. The City of Sopot is the town where the World Championships will be held in 2017.

During the 3 days of the regatta, 9 races were sailed according to the schedule. The first 2 races in a wind from 4 to 6 knots but then 7 races with the wind from 8 to 14 knots. Especially on Saturday, these were perfect sailing conditions, 10 to 14 knots of warm South wind and flat water allowed the foiling boats to show their performance possibilities. During that nice sunny day the regatta was tracked with live TV coverage and the show on the TV was very spectacular. On the last day of racing we had two races with good foilng conditions and then unfortunately one race in light winds during the rain.

Tymek Bendyk won the regatta with strong lead and dominated the fleet. He was sailing on new Exploder AD3 and Bryt Sail. Tymek was very fast upwind

and had good performance downwind in his foiling mode. Jacek Noetzel was in second place. He sailed on Exploder AD3 and Brewin Sail. He also had very good performance, but only in wind ranges from 10-14 knots. He had two weaker races in the non foiling conditions. Chris Rashley from Great Britain, is a specialist in the Moth Class, and it was his first ever start in the A-class. He prepared his new Exploder AD3 and North Sail, being well experienced, he was practicing one week before the regatta. His foiling abilities are superb so he was very fast and especially in light foiling conditions.

Two races in the light non-foilng conditions were won Marcin Badzio – a specialist in the floating mode on his Scheurer and LOD Sail. In the final results he

finished 5th, just behind his junior rival Kuba Surowiec on Exploder AD3 and Bryt Sail.

From each day of racing, organizers made movie trailer and a lot of interesting photos made by Malgosia Noetzel. Within a week Navigo will publish the movie from the regatta made by Provideos.

Exactly in one year time Sopot will host A-class World Championships and we hope that the weather will be as good as this time was!  aclassworlds2017.pl

Photos - Klub Żeglarski UKS Navigo., and Malgosia Noetzel