The Revolution is here: At Persico 69F Revolution is war on the foil between sixteen teams Under 25
by Wordpower srl 10 Aug 2020 22:30 PDT
14-19 August 2020
Persico 69F Revolution Cup - Persico 69F fleet © Persico 69F / Studio Borlenghi
From "Classic Garda Of Gargnano" to a circuit for 69F. During the first day of revolution cup there have been 6 flight played and a big run around the buoys arranged as quadrilateral path with a reaching start.
The Ora wind - that blew from 6 knots to 8 knots - has outlined what the Revolution is made of: the difference is in the courage to dare, in the skill of manoeuvre easily staying always "up there", on the foil, in not getting a penalty. It's easy to say, but to do it you have to pass the learning curve and the severe apprenticeships required by Persico 69F, even if you're 25 and you could be almost a "native foiler".
The revolution, when you have tamed the means, is finding out that on the foil you can do everything - going beyond what you have been taught in twenty years of sailing from optimist to dinghies, monotypes and keelboat - even surpassing your opponent, whoever you choose, upwind and downwind, let him plodding along in the buoy, starting apparently behind and then recover everything thanks to a better run on the foil: that is, in summary, everything we have seen today on the circuit of Gargnano. Because here the differences are accentuated, mistakes become macroscopic and they become metres and metres of gap: put all of this in the hands of nimble and ambitious Under 25, and the Revolution it's ready, because they are ready to experiment, and they have already learnt that this is another type of sailing. Dare but with craftiness because you can do a good job on the water but lose everything because of too many penalties: here the rules are inflexible, as the dutch team has seen first hand, going from first to third in one flight for an infraction during the pre-start procedure.
CNVA Sailing Team, Birikkine, RHKYC Team Agiplast e Dutch Sail Blue are the winner teams of the first four flight, confirmed - with the four second placed teams, the Italians, Kuma Racing Team, Sciatt, FP Sailing e Lisa Sailing Team - in the upper part of the table: the first day of revolution cup Under 25 version was devoted to them.
In the second turn of the upper part of the table the best teams have been CNVA Sailing Team (Circolo Nautico e della Vela Argentario: Ettore Botticini, Federico Colannino and Simone Salvà, a true team: complete, reflective and aggressive), RHKYC Team Agiplast (Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club: with the Wasp World Champion Calum Gregor at the weel, with Nicolai Jacobsen, Maria Cantero, Samy Morton: maybe the more concrete and complete team on water), Birikkine (Fraglia Vela Riva: Guido Gallinaro, Giulio Maccarrone and Pietro De Luca, with some miles with Persico 69F already done, useful when you have to be determinated) and FP.Sailing, (Circolo Velico Ravennate: Alessandro and Federico Caldari, Giacomo Bandini) and now they're ready to go back to race in flight 12, the semifinals of the upper part of the table: first and second ones will access to the decisive race of Sunday.
But from the Revolution nobody goes home in the first turn: tomorrow, Thursday August 11th, the first two flight will have as protagonist Danish Youth America's Cup Challenger, One Up Sailing Team, Champagne and 3V Flying Squadron in the first one, Nose Dive, Dutch Sail Orange, and the two Arkanoè by Montura in Flight 8: the best two of every flight already have the opponents ready for the second two, went down from the upper part of the table, to meet respectively in Flight 9 and 10. Then, there will be the second semifinal, at the end of it the first two teams will "see the stars again" in the final on Sunday.
The summary of the day from the teams "made in Italy" is assigned to Ettore Botticini at the wheel of CNVA Sailing Team: "The foil is a big news for me, I've been sail in Wasp since September. I was very curious to try Persico 69F because they're an innovation: sailing in foil in team is fun. The boat is stable even with high speed. Today sailed well: we started right on the line, clean and we stayed far away from penalties. Great feeling with my team, with Federico and Simone. I really like the Revolution Formula: we race in match race so we are used to change of boats, to control everything fast and to adapt to situations. These rules allow to have many young people in evidence, and this is a very important element in an international key."
For the international teams is Hong Kong team who makes an assessment: "A great day - said the helmsman of RHKYC Team Agiplast, Calum Gregor: even with medium/low wind we managed to overcome 17 knots sailing, and the boat is amazing. About the technical aspect, the important things today were not to make mistakes, not to get penalties and to stay focused on our job. Everything went well, it was a good team test."