A-Class Italy @Circolo Sunset Calambrone 2017: Eugenio Calabria 1st
The “rookies” couldn’t catch the ‘Master’ this time around. Experienced A-Cat sailor Eugenio Calabria showed Vittorio Bissaro & Lorenzo Bianchini (two top notch Italian catsailors who started racing As recently) how to close a regatta with two bullets to grab the top place of the podium at Calambrone. It was too close though.
Great to see ‘Vitto’ and ‘Lolo’ , usually featured here in the F18s, now racing As. Our friend Bissaro also had a great Nacra 17 campaign.
The A Class is renewing its target which is a forced scenario on the new foiling mode but still everyone can enjoy the As and will continue to be the choice for many long time sailors. The A-Class concept and allure is fully maintained also in floating mode.
And what the Class lose from one end is gained from the opposite spectrum. In the past I didn´t saw many sailors participating F18 and A-Cats at same time beyond Ashby & Booth.
My recommendation as always is try to sail both, if possible of course.
Yesterday I went out in the A and exchanged helm on the water with my friend Agustin and his Exploder F18, I had some good spi runs while he experienced smooth rides on the A14 learning how to handle it.
On the racing itself in Italy, few times I’ve seen a triple tie, even on discards, the winner was decided on bullets for Calabria. With Bianchini & Bissaro following behind. Video top mark video below shows great conditions.
To follow news on the Italian fleet check fb group Classe A
30 boats on the water, good fleet numbers for the Italian fleet. Regatta organized by Centro Vela Sunset near Livorno, North Italy.
Top ten below, full results here
| Pos | Sail | Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Tot |
| 1 | ITA 2 | Eugenio Calabria | -3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | ITA 14 | Lorenzo Bianchini | 1 | 1 | -3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 9 |
| 3 | ITA 13 | Vittorio Bissaro | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -3 | 2 | 9 |
| 4 | ITA 51 | Stefano Casadei | 4 | 4 | 4 | -8 | 6 | 4 | 22 |
| 5 | ITA 3 | Paolo Penco | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | -7 | 25 |
| 6 | ITA 72 | Giussepe Colombo | 5 | 5 | -7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 26 |
| 7 | SWE 59 | Alberto Farnesi | 8 | -9 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 35 |
| 8 | AUS 4 | Stefano Sirri | 9 | 8 | 9 | 9 | -11 | 10 | 45 |
| 9 | ITA 101 | Andrea Ferrari | -19 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 46 |
| 10 | ITA 7 | Daniele Menegati | -16 | 11 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 52 |
I just heard that my great sailing friend and former CEO of Hobiecat Europe has passed. May The endless oceans…
...Report was sent by an F18 Sailor, if you want Hobies reported send your own, we'll publish as usual. Cheers.
Looks like in your report the Hobies are not really present. Suggest to rewrite the article.
Thanks for the great report Wik. Great battle.
If I correctly read the results the overall winner this year is a Hobie16