A-Class Cat European Championships 2025 at Riccione, Italy - Day 4
by Gordon Upton 14 Jun 2025 15:23 BST
9-13 June 2025
Thursday, the A-Cat Euros is entering its crucial phase. With enough races sailed to declare it a Championship, but too few to allow a crucial second discard. And believe me, there were many sailors, and many of the highly ranked ones, who dearly need that second discard!
Who killed that Albatross? 'The wind's not usually like this here' is the mantra frequently heard at events. In the case of Riccione, it is true. They usually expect a pleasant onshore breeze of about 12 or so kts, exactly as it was last week and throughout the practice build-up period and a nice bit of sea breeze on top. Then this Northerly wind springs up, flows down the coast in the morning, and removes it all. They are left with 5, 6, 7 kts of wind from the East and, despite temperatures of upwards of 30 degrees, no sea breeze arrives. But there are the only tools given, so we work with them. And we remember how a whole Moth Worlds in Weymouth, of all places, was canned after the wind disappeared completely for the week, so we count our blessings.
Races 6 and 7 again saw light 5-6 kt winds across both the Open and Classic courses. There were little flurries of pressure here and there, but any sailor trying to catch them would be lucky to find one in their path, others just fall into holes. Entropy in action. But believe it or not, a few here really relish these conditions. Those sailors live with this regularly, and as a result, rather like those weird eyeless fish that live in dark caves and have developed specific evolutionary environmental peculiarities, these sailors possess skills and techniques that the allows them to glide serenely away from us normal mortals, so if you sail on a lake in Southern Germany, this is meat and drink to you.
On the Classic course, race 6 was all lined up nicely to go, only, the boats all seemed have agreed to be 15 seconds early just for a laugh. Franco Pagliarini, the race officer aboard the old lugger Saviolina, the Classic fleets historic committee boat, decided it would be easier to take numbers of those not actually over the line, and ordered a general recall with the associated threat of the black flag. This seemed the jolt them into compliance, and the next start was good and the fleet rocketed off towards the top mark in the 5kt breeze.
The top mark was reached first by Gustavo Doreste ESP 72. The reigning World and Euro champion was determined to remain in the fight, after his NSC penalty the day before and just reset focus on the race bullet. He was chased though by the current regatta leader, Scott Anderson AUS 31. Most of the fleet stayed on the left, avoiding speed sapping gybes. By now, Gustavo is shadowed by Teo De Battista ITA4, another good light airs expert, and by the top mark again, Teo arrived in front of Scotty, who was in turn being chased by Manuel Vaccari ITA 5, and Georg Reutter GER2, two more wind whisperers.
But Gustavo's control over the race is legendary. The former Olympian won't let go if he has the fleet by the neck and finished 50s ahead of Teo, with Scotty just behind. Georg and Manuel followed a little after.
By now the wind was really at the class minimum 5kts. Holes were starting to appear over the course. But race 7 got off, this tome with Manuel the whole race from Teo. Georg in his Nikita, opted more for the middle area, sailing deeper with his 110deg over-rotated mast and closed distance on the leader, but at the line it was the Schuerer of Manuel from Teo's Exploder. George came in a good 3rd.
Meanwhile over on the Open fleet's 'Course of Joy', much greater misery was being inflicted on the fleet more used to flying about at 15+ kts. Their boats are noticeably slower than the Classics in these conditions. They big draggy wings and foils do them no favours. They can't really raise them to sail either, if they want any space on the tramp to move about without potentially severing a femoral artery, so just must suck it up.
Open race 6 got off first time, and the fleet split in half pretty much 100m from the line, The current regatta front runners of Kuba Surowiec POL41, Marti Abdon Ibanez ESP 74, Manolo Calavia ESP11 and Emmanuel Dode FRA2 kept left, Lamberto Cesare ITA3, with Mischa Heemskerk NED7 trying their luck on the right. In this wind, they were pushing to make 6 kts upwind, so frustration suppression became a big deal if you wanted to win. At the top mark, as usual, it was Kuba's light physical build that helped him in addition to his supreme sailing skills. Following was Lamberto, showing that no course side was favoured this time. But not too far behind was Dominik Pleikert SUI17. His rather 'fat' sail, almost a classic cut sail, is sometimes a bit of a menace if the fruity stuff arrives, but this time it looked to be the perfect choice form power a non-foiling foiler.
As expected, the fleet tended to go to the left downwind, in manoeuvre limiting technique. Howling downwind at unheard of speeds some in excess of 4kts, the fleet reached the gate, Kuba leading Lamberto. By now, it had been decided to finish that race at the top gate, to prevent further mental damage being inflicted on these poor sailors after being forced to sail about at Laser speeds. The win was Lamberto's just ahead of Kuba.
It was decided on a 7th race as the wind had started back on a little. At the gun, the leading sailors were spread at differing points along the whole line, no favoured end or spot. Except for Manolo, who went right almost at once, most of the fleet went left again from the line before each started breaking for the right one at a time, with some reaching almost 7 kts. But staying on the left, Emmanuel Dode led but shadowed by Dominik. The left did seem to offer slightly more pressure as he and Dominik rounded as leaders. At the bottom, it was still the Swiss sailor from the Frenchman, with the others close behind. This was an entirely 'low-rider' race so far.
They carried on tacking and covering, almost like normal boats would, but Dominik and his fat sail gradually eased ahead and led on the downwind in a fleet generally going at 3 kts. It would have been exciting stuff, had they been going 5 times the speed, but this slo-mo race ended with a delighted Dominik crossing first ahead of Manolo and Emmanuel.
All sailed back to enjoy their Paella supper, cooked in honour of the next Euros venue on the Mar Menor in Spain, followed by much raucous dancing until late to try and forget the trauma of that day's sailing. We'll see how much this effects the results for Friday.
Full results can be found here.