Champions and records at Foiling Week Malcesine 2025
by WeAreFoiling 29 Jun 2025 23:30 BST
22-29 June 2025
Foiling Week 2025 | BirdyFish fleet © Martina Orsini - WeAreFoiling Media
The twelfth edition of Foiling Week came to an end today in Malcesine with the awarding of the first BirdyFish World Championship title, showing the largest fleet ever for the occasion. Victory went to the Italian crew of Federico Bonalana and Marco Alberti after 12 fiercely contested races, where they came out on top ahead of fellow Italians Carlo Brenco and Andrea Felci, and the British team of Oliver Bond and Robin Russell.
This year's Foiling Week held special significance for Moth sailors. Just over a week from now, the Moth World Championship will take place at Fraglia Vela, and many title contenders arrived early at Lake Garda, making this year's line-up one of the most competitive ever. Victory went to France's Enzo Balanger, securing his third Foiling Week title, ahead of New Zealand's Jacob Pye, who also won Best Youth, and Malta's Richard Schultheis. Victoria Schulteis of Malta finished first among women.
A full French podium in the ETF26 class was recorded yesterday, with Entreprises du Morbihan topping the standings after 21 races, followed by K-Challenge Blue helmed by Quentin Delapierre, and Blueshift Sailing Team in third. Next came the British Toroa Racing Team and the Italian Geronimo team.
The first phase of racing ended on Wednesday with the final races of the WASZP and Switch One Design classes.
In the WASZP class, that registered the highest number of participants at Foiling Week with 131 boats, after twelve races, Spain's Pablo Astiazaran Perez-Cela took the win, followed by Italians Federico Bergamasco and Mosè Bellomi. Norway's Nora Doksroed led the women's ranking, ahead of Pearl Lattanzi (USA) and Louise Metenier (France). Italy dominated the 6.9 youth division, with Jacopo Andrian first among the men, followed by Leonardo Vanelo and Artur Brighenti. Olivia Castaldi topped the women's ranking and finished second overall, with Alice Virginia Prando and Clarissa Vedovelli in second and third place respectively.
In the Switch One Design class, Malta's Antonia Schultheis edged out Italy's Alessandra Dubbini, with Sweden's Vilma Bobeck in third. Among the men, British sailors Finley Dickinson and Sam Whaley claimed the top spots, followed by Switzerland's Matteo Paulon in third.
Board competitions at Foiling Week 2025 were organised in collaboration with the Surf Foil World Tour (SFT). The pump foil ranking saw Edan Fiander in first place, Jurij Scheibler second, and Rob von Roll third. The 2025 Best Rookie award went to Liam Calo.
On Saturday morning, Foiling Week and SFT hosted the second edition of the Downwind Race, open to rowing or electric-powered foil boards, along a 6-mile north-to-south course powered by a 12-15 knot Peler wind. Among SUPs, Rob von Roll took the win, followed by Jurij Scheibler. In the foil-drive division, Philipp Aixmann came first, ahead of Dominic Hoskyns.
In the e-foil category, Sweden's Agnes Wikander won among women, followed by Coralie Louguet. In the men's division, Clemens Kresser took first place, with Piet Varkevisser second and Kai Katchadourian third.
The first Foiling Week Cup, a timed virtual competition on the AC40 simulator developed by Emirates Team New Zealand and open to national teams of four, was won by "American Magic", represented by Jacob Lentz, Leo Burnham, James Hacket, and Roman Fletcher.
This year offered the widest selection of trials ever. Seven boats and two board equipments were available for testing at the Foiling Week Village: BirdyFish, BirdyFish S, IODA, NIKKI, D - Devoti Sailing, FOIL DRIVE, Foil One, Switch One Design, and Ketos Boards.
Throughout the week, a clinic was held by Foiling Week in collaboration with World Sailing for the training of foiling race officers, led by Foiling Week's Principal Race Officer, Briton Tim Hancock.
Athletes from the North Foil and Kite team, Noé Cantaloube and Matteo Dorotini, gave impressive on-water demonstrations, highly appreciated by the public.
The Spanish team Onix hosted two sessions on the latest foil manufacturing techniques.
During the Summer Lightness Party organised with Dyneema, Gottifredi Maffioli presented the new Titaelium to guests, developed in collaboration with Ruggero Tita.
In addition to a lakebed cleanup dive with Atlas Diving, Biodesign Foundation organised Vox Maris, a workshop on crafting bags from discarded fishing nets. Both initiatives were part of the Foiling Week 2025 Social Theme dedicated to #regeneration.
The week also featured the traditional evening at the Palazzo dei Capitani in Malcesine and the Saturday aperitif offered by Cantine Tinazzi.
Tomorrow and Tuesday will see the Foiling Sport Congress, with invited representatives from international sailing events, major foiling competitions, World Sailing, national federations, teams, companies, and leading industry professionals. The event, organised by The Foiling Organization, is held under the patronage of the Italian Sailing Federation.