A-Cat European Spring @Circolo Vela Arco: Mischa Heemskerk 1st
All sailing images by Elena Giolai. Top quality photos, more than 300 published at Circolo Vela Arco fb. As usual perfect media work for this annual event.
Mischa Heemkserk dominated the 2019 Europeans Spring organized annually by Circolo Vela Arco. A must attend event if you have the chance. On the venue and racing conditions one of the best regattas out there.
6 bullets out of same amount of races completed, top Aussie sailors, Polish Armada or Manolo Calavia weren’t at Garda but Mischa had some sailors that could challenge if the issues of his F1x from its launch were not solved, but it was not the case. As seen at past Worlds in Australia the F1x seems well established by now giving Mischa an open door to squeeze the performance out of it on his sailing & foiling skills.
Mischa rides the DNA F1x with his Mischa Sails DS , a proven sail design in the A-Class. Mischa will target coming Worlds in Weymouth. More info later that regatta on a separated coming post.
Second place at Garda for Kostas Trigonis (D3/1D). Getting the pace still out of the A-Class Kostas should keep pushing and target more hours and regattas to reach top level. If you think of the top 5-10 in the A-Class right now they are all seasoned A-Cat sailors like Ahsby, Mischa, Brewin, Bundy , Manolo , the Polish armada and others. Sailing a new Class is a challenge and good to see Kostas going for it. Our friend at 1D showing also they have a competitive sail as Iago Lopez Marra also demonstrated at past Worlds.
Third place overall for Emmanuel Dodé (D3/North) , fourth for another experienced A-Cat sailor like Bob Baier (D3/North) and 5th to our Arg mate Sergio Mehl (D3/Brewin boomless) who after a great first day had an inconsistent Sunday with a capsize while gong second , scored DNC, later he was leading and got caught in a lull for a 17th to finish with more adequate 5th in the last regatta.
Sergio got 5,2, 2 yesterday in full flying conditions and was set for the podium, not the best to end the event but a great regatta nonetheless as he had literally no A-Cat sailing past months. 1 to 1 handling the Argie can be put as top ten World Wide in my opinion, already got several top tens at Worlds (2015, 2018 etc) and podium at Garda too, but he will need to put more hours in big regattas (not easy being from Arg) and more consistent races for his potential and speed to reach a pinnacle and grab those podiums his skills are showing he is capable of achieving. A normal day for him today was surely a 2nd or 3rd overall no problem.
Nice to see also long time F18 sailor N17 Olympic sailor Thijs Visser, sailing an F1x to a 7th overall and Gianni Fantasia, old Guard F18 getting airborne and having fun with the A-Cats as many F18 sailors world wide doing both classes now like those also racing at Arco like Mehl, Bojland, Kostas, Baier , add Bundy and plenty others. Motto for all these guys is ‘We just cannot get enough Catsailing, so if two hulls. so bring them on!
Full results below, official Circolo Arco Europeans Spring Regatta web: www.circolovelaarco.it/regate-lago-di-garda/7-a-class-european-spring-championship
