Italian Nationals – Final

Arco, August 30 – September 2, 2012. Enrico Michel & Stefano Longhi are the 2012 Italian Champions. Alexandre Tinoco & Daniel Seixas won the Open Italian Nationals. 1. BRA 30703 Alexandre Tinoco & Daniel Seixas, 3-10-2-2-(20)-1-1, tot. 19 2. USA 30288 Augie Diaz & Elisabetta Macchini, 5-2-1-(14)-6-4-4, tot. 22 3. ITA 30774 Enrico Michel & Stefano Longhi, 4-7-(22)-9-1-3-2, tot.26 Videos, full results and italian ranking list. Regatta report: Lago di Garda Lake Garda is famous worldwide for its wind, called “Ora”, that, as reliably as a stopwatch on days of high pressure, begins to blow from the south at lunch time. To the north, the lake narrows and becomes almost a funnel, closed to the east and west by steep mountains. Here the funneled Ora blows strong and steady, often reaching 20 knots. For this reason, sailing in Riva del Garda, Arco or Torbole is an experience that every sailor should try. Early in the morning, the wind blows from the north and is called “Peler”. It is stronger a little farther south, towards Malcesine. The reputation of a windy race course has perhaps kept away many competitors who generally prefer light to medium winds. I think the average Snipe sailor will not rejoice at sailing for four days with strong winds. For the Italian Nationals there were no more than 40 boats.

by Pietro Fantoni 09/03/2012

Arco, August 30 – September 2, 2012. Enrico Michel & Stefano Longhi are the 2012 Italian Champions.

Alexandre Tinoco & Daniel Seixas won the Open Italian Nationals.

1. BRA 30703 Alexandre Tinoco & Daniel Seixas, 3-10-2-2-(20)-1-1, tot. 19

2. USA 30288 Augie Diaz & Elisabetta Macchini, 5-2-1-(14)-6-4-4, tot. 22

3. ITA 30774 Enrico Michel & Stefano Longhi, 4-7-(22)-9-1-3-2, tot.26

Videos, full results and italian ranking list.

Regatta report:

Lago di Garda

Lake Garda is famous worldwide for its wind, called “Ora”, that, as reliably as a stopwatch on days of high pressure, begins to blow from the south at lunch time.

To the north, the lake narrows and becomes almost a funnel, closed to the east and west by steep mountains. Here the funneled Ora blows strong and steady, often reaching 20 knots. For this reason, sailing in Riva del Garda, Arco or Torbole is an experience that every sailor should try.

Early in the morning, the wind blows from the north and is called “Peler”. It is stronger a little farther south, towards Malcesine.

The reputation of a windy race course has perhaps kept away many competitors who generally prefer light to medium winds. I think the average Snipe sailor will not rejoice at sailing for four days with strong winds. For the Italian Nationals there were no more than 40 boats.

Weather conditions

In the days before the regatta many sailors were able to practice in the hot sun, with a beautiful Ora that Wednesday was close to 20 knots. Unfortunately during the Italian Nationals the high pressure system became increasingly weak. A cold front approached that prevented the regular Peler and Ora.

The Club

Given that the weather conditions were particularly bad (strong winds, unstable winds, rain, cold), the Race Committee had, in my opinion, some difficulty in managing rubber boats, motorboats, and personnel provided by the club. There were evident problems in positioning the marks with strong winds from the north because of the depth of the lake. The race course marks on Lake Garda are set in fixed positions with permanent plastic buoys. But these buoys were not available for the north wind! Some of the delays in going out on the water for sailing were also the result of a certain reluctance of a big percentage of sailors. Taking buckets of cold water is not very pleasant, but when planing superfast on a reach I always forget the discomfort of sailing a dinghy.

The organizing club provided to the sailors only the bare essentials. Because of the bad weather, we missed a warm club house.

The regatta

This year there were two World Champions who came to sail: Alexandre Tinoco and Augie Diaz. Both of them had already raced this year in Italy, in Talamone for the Piada Trophy.

Alexandre won the championship, but two firsts and two seconds does not mean that the victory was easy and obvious. At the beginning of the regatta he found a worthy opponent in Enrcio Solerio. Tinoco sailed with Daniel Seixas, who won this year’s U.S. Nationals.

Augie Diaz sailed the Nationals with Elisabetta Macchini, a young (and very light) Italian sailor, one of the best Laser Radial sailor in Italy, who sailed the Snipe Nationals in 2006 and the Piada in 2010. After some training session Augie and Betta built good teamwork and finished second in the race in 25 knots. The next day they won a race. At the end only three points separated them from the winners.

The title of Italian champions was won by Enrico Michel and Stefano Longhi. This is the ninth title for Enrico. Before the last day the team from Trieste was only in eighth place, while firmly in command were Enrico Solerio and Sergio Simonetti. On the last day the unthinkable happened when Solerio/Simonetti piled up three mediocre races.

It was a tough regatta, and all the teams had bad races. We experienced all kind of conditions from light wind on the first and last race, to the strong winds of the second race (20-25 knots with some gusts even higher). For those who were present it will remain stamped in our memory the wild reaches of the second race. (Photos: Roberto Vuilleumier)