2025 Formula Wing World Championships, Sardinia, Italy - Day 3
by WingFoil Racing World Cup 26 Sep 2025 19:44 BST
23-28 September 2025
Strong southerly wind on Day 3 - 2025 Formula Wing World Championships, Sardinia, Italy © IWSA media / Robert Hajduk
A change of wind and wave conditions on day three of the Formula Wing World Championships in Cagliari brought a change of fortune for some key players.
Maddalena Spanu has dominated the event on the first two days of competition in the shiftier, gustier northerly breeze blowing off the shore of Cagliari. Contrary to some pessimistic weather models which had predicted almost no wind today, a strong southerly gusted in from out to sea, bringing in a big swell and some rolling waves into the bay.
Women's battle getting fiercer
Three women seized the opportunity to close the gap on Spanu, with Poland's Karolina Kluszczynska closing the gap to just two points behind the Italian leader. Just a few points behind in 3rd and 4th place respectively are Vaina Picot from France and Emilia Kosti from Greece. The women's battle is really heating up as they go into the final weekend of competition.
"I wasn't really thinking about the points or the overall positions," said Kluszczynska. "It was just really focused on the manoeuvres, just trying not to crash in the tacks," she said.
After a shocking start to his campaign over the previous two days, Kamil Manowiecki executed a huge turnaround in his performance in the big breeze. "I love these conditions and I would be even happier if it was 30 knots of wind," he grinned after coming ashore with scores of 5,2,2,1,1,2. Recent winner of the WingFoil Racing World Cup China, the ambitious Polish rider is more or less back to where he expected to be. He rose from 10th at the start of the day to third overall by the end of an exhausting but exhilarating afternoon of high-speed racing.
Tiny details, big change
"I changed the straps, the harness lines, small details which make a big difference," Manowiecki explained. He says he was mostly unconcerned about his loss of form the previous days. "I was not not feeling good with the equipment, but my support team told me you cannot forget how to wingsail within a month. So I said maybe that's true, and I just kept pushing, and it worked today."
Carlo Ciabatti has plenty of experience of today's conditions in the bay. He grew up in Cagliari and has loved being on the water all his life. "I saw that this event was happening here, and I was really keen to be part of it," said the Italian who currently lies in 14th place out of the 73-strong men's fleet.
Winging into the cup
Ciabatti worked as part of the shore crew for Luna Rossa in last year's America's Cup. Like a lot of his colleagues in the Cup, his way of relaxing outside of work is to go winging. It has the double benefit of sharpening up a sailor for any kind of foil-borne sailing. "A lot of my friends in America's Cup and SailGP like to train on the wingfoil because they say the feeling is really similar to sailing on the bigger boats. Jimmy Spithill [two-time America's Cup winning skipper] is really into his wingfoiling and he always told me that the feeling of testing a new foil on the AC75 was similar to when we change our front foil on the wingfoil."
Racing takes place out of Poetto Beach in Cagliari from 24 to 28 September. Results are updated as they happen, racing is being tracked, and the final two days will be live streamed on FaceBook and YouTube. Saturday's livestream is scheduled to start at 2pm local time. For all the updates, and exclusive content, follow @wingfoilracing on social media.
More information and results here.