A-Class: European Spring &Italian Nats @Arco: Thilo Keller 1st

Images Circolo vela Arco.Photo above: Mischa Heemskerk, no sailing pic available form Thilo although good shots from him in another excellent video made by Circolo Vela Arco,  along the German Nats films, footage from Arco were the clips I showed the local guys to get them hooked with the As. Pity they don´t Mischa flying and winning 3 races, and only we can see a foiling sequence of the Arg sailor falling to windward. –

Good conditions on Friday & Saturday at Circolo Vela Arco, but on the first day of racing a dead calm hit Garda and only 1 race was completed. The fleet had to be towed in to the Club. Thilo Keller won that first race with the Arrow on floating mode setup.

Sunday the Club called for an early start with 3 races held in around 17-20knots with Mischa dominating at will foiling downwind with the 2015 Dna with Z foils (same as Ashby’s last year) and new one shot built L rudders. The report I have is Mischa was untouchable. But scored a 20 in the calm the previous day.

On Monday good breeze again, and all set for Heemskerk to score bullets again, but Mischa had some issues with his boat, he reported a “nut problem” and sadly he couldn´t complete any race for the day. Thilo went for it and scored 3 bullets to win the event.

Jacek Noetzel with Exploder was second and Sergio Vela with Scheurer G7, third.
For the Italian Nats Stefano Cavallari took the home crow finishing 6th overall.

With Mischa out , last race was not that easy for Thilo as the rookie Arg sailor , who was improving in each race, was leading  in foiling mode downwind (Dna 2015). But racing inexperience and lack hours on the new boat made him lost that final race to Thilo.
This marking the difference for good foilers against floaters, even those with no or little racing hours like Mehl, that only had some races at Bordeaux.

Flying alone will not give you a race, less a full championship if you cannot control or race the course in due form. Nevertheless great event for the Arg crew, ending ahead of some top Europeans riders & champs like Baier , Jacek and others.

This event brought  lots of good vibes and he will go a week in advance to Punta Ala to train properly and make good use of the handling and foiling skills he has achieved sailing in our tricky but excellent training ground that our Rio de la Plata provides.
Just analyze how a guy that has such little racing hours on the A, and only trained here past year alone or with other few boats can have the chance to win a race in an international event. This is great news for the Class , new sailors challenging top contenders.

Garda & Punta Ala chop is a kid’s game for local sailors, expect more good individual races performance at the Worlds from him and two other that are trying to secure charter to race.

Top ten results below. Full table at https://circolovelaarco.com/images/file/regata/2015/A_CAT/PROV%20RESULTS%20DAY%203.htm