2015 Foiling Week - Three days of fast and furious foiling

by Domenico Boffi on 4 Jul 2015 2015 Foiling Week - Racing for foiling one design classes came to a close after three days of fast and furious foiling action in stunning hot summer conditions at Lake Garda. Over the three days the regular Southerly ‘Ora’ breeze kicked in like clockwork, delivering between 12 - 18 knots at lunchtime, to allow the Fraglia Vela race committee to fire off 10 races on flat waters. The regatta climaxed with a thunderstorm on the last afternoon providing the spectators with some epic foiling displays.

Moth Euro Cup

32 Moths from 12 nations competed in Act Five of the Moth Euro Cup with racing held on tight windward/leeward courses in front of Fraglia Vela in Malcesine. Fresh from the UK Nationals, Ben Paton (GBR) set up a close battle with local Italian Moth legend Stefano Rizzi (ITA), who himself had just acquired a new boat from Chris Draper in the UK. Despite little time getting used to his new boat, Stefano pushed Ben hard in the early races but the British sailor built up the consistency on day two, firing off six straight bullets to regain control of the regatta.

“I always look forward to coming down here to Foiling Week in Lake Garda, I had a fantastic year here last year and we have had some really fantastic winds again this year, on queue and some fabulous racing. We just lost two races on the last day due to a thunderstorm but I went out after the storm to have a great blast.” Ben remarked with a big grin on his face!

Spectators lined the shore of Fraglia Vela in Malcesine to applaud Ben’s performance, flying over the waves under the storm clouds.

Stefano who has not raced much since the Moth Worlds in Sorrento, Australia in January enjoyed his dual with the visitors.

“I enjoy a lot to race against Ben Paton and all the British guys, and to be honest there are a lot of good guys here, a nice level in this fleet. It was fun racing against Ben because it was really close and you cannot miss one tack or one gybe because it is the difference between a win and second place. It is nice when you race really tight in the Moth, you have to make your decisions super-fast. Ben is a really good sailor so it’s really good to sail close to him. It’s impossible not to have fun here on Lake Garda.” remarked Stefano.

It was the first time that Ben has won a Moth EuroCup event.

Rory Fitzpatrick of Ireland, sailed a consistent series to take third overall. Another Brit, David Hivey took fourth overall and places five - eight were occupied by Italian sailors.

Six Flying Phantoms competed in the latest round the Flying Phantom Series held as part of Foiling Week at Lake Garda. In a course set close to the Moths but using reaching starts and windward/leeward race tracks, similar to that used at the last Americas Cup regatta, racing was intense. The Flying Phantoms really take off in 12 - 18 knots and places changed hands all around the course.

Gurvan Bontemps (FRA) started the regatta with a 2/3 but then scored eight wins in a row showing his supremacy in boat handling around the course. Francois Gabart (FRA) missed race one but put in a consistent set of second places to take second in the 10 race series. Even the top crews found the going tough, the cats are very lively and require a good fitness level with just two crew.Francois Gabart (FRA) sailing the Flying Phantom for the first time.

“It was perfect racing because the conditions here in Lake Garda are amazing for a boat like the Flying Phantom where we have a lot to learn. It’s good to have conditions like this. Today was not so easy because of the thunderstorm but the first two days were perfect.”

“We are learning how to fly upwind, we try a lot of new things on the boat each day and we are going faster and faster. These courses are really fast, they say we were close to 20 knots upwind and maybe 26 knots downwind! When you are rounding the marks you have to be really focused and for the crew it’s a lot of work to trim the sails and the kite.”

Thomas Normand of France made it a trifecta for the French teams by finishing on third place on the podium.

The Flying Phantoms next regatta of the series will be in September in St Malo.

Foiling Week continues over the weekend with two Long Distance Races of approximately 25nm with all flying boats taking part. It promises to be a fitting finale to five days of frenetic foiling.

One design races final results:

Funivia Malcesine - Monte Baldo Kitefoil Invitational - Final results

1 GER 5, BAUMEISTER SCHOENIAN MARVIN, 9 - (dns) 1 -3 1 1 1 1 2 1 1
2 AUS 3, MIRSKY TORVAR, 20 - 3 -5 -4 3 4 3 2 1 2 2
3 AUS 7, GIRDIS JORDAN, 20 - 2 2 2 2 -3 -4 3 3 3 3
4 FRA 10, VIEUJOT MOUQUET MATEO, 27 - 1 3 1 4 2 2 (ret) (dns) dns dns
5 ITA 2, TONOLI STEFANO, 43 - 5 (dnf) (dnf) dnf dnf 5 4 4 dns 4
6 DOM 1, VIEUJOT SYLVAIN, 48 - 4 4 5 (dns) (dns) dns dns dns dns dns

Moth EuroCup Act Five - Final results

1 GBR 3982, PATON BEN, RLYM, 10 - 2 -3 1 1 1 1 1 1 -3 2
2 GBR 1, RIZZI STEFANO, SVOC, 15 - 1 2 2 -4 3 2 2 2 -5 1
3 IRL 4097, FITZPATRICK RORY, NATIONAL YC / RIYC, 27 - 4 -9 3 3 -6 3 3 5 1 5
4 GBR 4115, HIVEY DAVID, DATCHET, 34 - 5 4 4 5 -11 4 5 3 4 -6
5 ITA 4139, FERRIGHI STEFANO, WSC, 36 - 3 6 5 2 2 13 (dns) (dns) 2 3
6 ITA 4117, DE FELICE PG, R.Y.C.C.S, 40 - 6 1 -10 7 5 5 4 4 -11 8

Flying Phantom Series 2015 @ Foiling Week™ – results after two days of races

1 FRA 4 Gurvan Bontemps - Cantin Roger, 8,0 - (2) (3) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 FRA 7 François Gabart - Bryan Mettraux, 17,0 - (dnc) 2 (4) 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
3 FRA 8 Thomas Normand - Antoine Joubert, 20,0 - 1 1 2 4 3 3 (dnf) (dns) 4 2
4 JPN 6 Eri Fukasawa - Grégoire Courtel, 28,0 - 3 4 (5) 3 4 4 3 3 (5) 4
5 GBR 100 Toby Orpin - Lewis Crawford, 40,0 - (dns) 5 3 5 5 (dnf) dnf dns 3 5