A Class Catamaran European Championships 2026 at Club Náutico Mar Menor - Practice Race
by Gordon Upton 1 Jun 11:27 BST
31 May - 5 June 2026
The European Championships starts to get serious now at the FVM centre in Los Alcázeras on the wonderful waters of the Spanish Mar Menor lagoon.
Sunday saw the official practice race prior to Monday's event start, at 14:00 we are told, but wind dependent of course. However, even a few days here teaches you that the wind tends to be lovely and reliable, as the decent sea breeze starts to kick in at about 12:30 to add to whatever base Easterly wind was blowing in.
All 19 nations were represented on the water today, and the Classic fleet was to be launched first when the flag dropped to allow them onto the water. The Open were kept back ashore for a while to prevent congestion in the race area because sailors, and several lacking in self-discipline, simply cannot prevent themselves whizzing about just behind the start line, particularly if it's not actually their start and thus harassing the fleet before it's their turn.
This event is the first major event in the A-Cat World that the new top mark arrangement comes into force and is being trialled for a year, ie. one European and one World championship event. It removes the top mark and spreader, taken to port, and replaces them with a top gate whereby the boats a free to choose the port or starboard buoy as their proposed tactic determines. It is designed to open up the right side of the course easier than having to gybe around the spreader if that was where you wanted to go. It should prevent a sort of formulaic course track whereby most go left and tend to stay until their lay-line gybe point for the bottom gate is reached.
This was all agreed back in November at the AGM in Auckland and voted through by the class associations present or in proxy. However, this still seemed create some disquiet amongst some sailors who didn't read the Sailing Instructions prior to the event, or indeed those who didn't read the AGM minutes published on the IACA website www.a-cat.org and demanded that this be returned to its original format. But it has been voted through by the class associations, and it was now deemed unalterable at this event.
In this first pair of races, it seemed to work well. The buoy spacing was pretty good but should need to be adjusted wider in a higher wind to give boats room for manoeuvre and avoidance space for when, inevitably, someone stuffs a tack and capsizes in the buoy approach zone. This could and has happened with the old system too, but they were not constrained and funnelled into a gate area and thus free to simply go around the mess, hence the mark separation distance is a safety feature that PROs and the Mark Layer has to be aware of, whilst keeping them in line at right angles to the wind and sometimes causing boats to be 'sucked' towards the more downwind of the two marks.
The other Championship rule change is the Grand Prix Finish. This is initially just for the Open fleet because of the extended finishing margins between the foiling boats. Basically, all sailors finish their current lap at the bottom, or wherever the finish line is set up, as soon as the leader finishes. It is designed to prevent lapped boats having to do another lap and prevents lead finished boats from waiting about for up to 30 mins at times, until they finally cross the finish and on occasions get timed out for not finishing within the allotted time window, something deeply dispiriting after all the effort you put into that race. The only caveat here being that the boats do not go through the bottom gate at all and to consider it an obstruction to be avoided from the last top mark downwards.
On the water, in the race area, both fleets were to sail the same course, but Classics sailed first followed by Open foiling boats in the second race of the day, after the Classic finished to avoid conflict and confusion. The practice race after all, is for the race committee and organisation to iron out wrinkles, the sailors should already know how to race around a course.
The fleet got away cleanly, and as usual headed for the left of the course. Tack point reached, they then headed back to the right side, most seeming to opt for the tried and tested port rounding on this first lap. Indeed, only one boat toward the rear of the fleet chose the right. However local knowledge has it that the right side would have been the better bet in that particular wind direction.
There is little point in mentioning specific sailors here, as most will use it for final match and boat fitness purposes. Many opted not to cross, going wide of the line at the end, and some even consider it bad luck to actually finish a practice race. After the Classic finished, many hung about to watch the Open fleet start, before returning home to the beach, or sailing off for a bit of last-minute informal group training.
The open fleet was started and again went left in the same pattern as the Classics. The top gate requires slightly more accuracy in negotiating it from a distance. The needle must be threaded with slightly more accuracy than just having to blast around the top mark and spreader to stbd. Again, on the first lap, all bar two did the old pattern rounding being unwilling to break the hard-wired rounding pattern in their heads for now.
In the Open race, even fewer crossed the line, and had long since realised there was no point in pushing too hard in a race where nothing is at stake other than bragging rights.
Monday will be Game On for the 2026 European A-Cat Championships.