Topcat K1 World Championship title on Traunsee keenly contested

by Susanne Sanberger on 16 Sep 2011 The Topcat K1 World Championship this year took place between the 27th August and the 2nd September at the Sail Training Centre for Upper Austria at Ebensee on Traunsee.

After absorbing duels, the title went to the current European champions from Italy Guido Pasolini and Gianluca Casadei in ITA 4001. Runners up, having achieved the same points score, were the Austrian team of Tom Zajak and Mercedes Zinn-Zinnenburg in AUT 3964 followed in third place by the Swiss crew of Normann Strack and Ralf Hartmann in SUI 3648. The best German team was Rainer and Nina Klaus in GER 4122 who achieved fifth place.

In parallel, the International Championships of the classes K2 and K3 took place with, in total, 96 crews from nine nations slugging it out for the world championship title in exciting competitions in the three Topcat classes K1, K2, and K3. The organizing club, SCE, has, over the past few years, earned a reputation as an outstanding host of large, high caliber, sailing events, for example, the Traunsee Week.

Normally stable winds in the south of Traunsee combined with a good infrastructure in Ebensee created the ideal venue for the Topcat world championships. However, the races became a tactical challenge with particularly difficult wind conditions occurring in narrow corridors.

Nevertheless, as a result of excellent regatta management, nine out of ten of the planned races took place successfully. The European championships, next year, take place in Domaso in Lake Como.