Please select your home edition
Edition
leaderboard with question mark E6 launch 2021

Record number of participants for the first Italian National Open Skiff Regatta

by Elena Giolai 15 Mar 05:36 PDT 17-19 March 2023
Italian National Open Skiff Regatta © Elena Giolai

Good news for youth sailing, for the Open Skiff class and for the city of Taranto: pre-registrations for the first national regatta of the 2023 season, which will start on Friday 17 March, have exceeded 120 skippers, something that has never happened in the very first regatta of the season or in any single ranking regatta.

At the moment, 29 under 12, 77 under 15 and 17 under 17s are registered, the latter category being grouped into the new under 16 from next year. Massive transfers for the Club Nautico Rimini and the Circolo Velico Sferracavallo (Palermo), clubs that are bringing as many as 13 kids-e each.

There was also excellent participation from Sardinia with 19 athletes in all (compared to 18 from Sicily with, in addition to CV Sferracavallo, also Vento di Tramontana asd, which has five helmsmen), with Windsurfing Club Cagliari (10), LNI del Sulcis (6), Veliamoci, LNI Cagliari, and CN Arbatax (1 each) representing the Sardinia Zone.

There was an excellent response from all the Apulian clubs, with the leader Circolo Velico Azimuth with 10 athletes and the others from the VIII FIV Zone totalling 26 participants, including Lega Navale di Taranto, Ondabuena Academy and CN L'Approdo (Lecce). There are also representatives from Tuscany, Marche, and Campania, who are doing an excellent job.

This start of the season will also be interesting from a technical point of view because of the experimentation advocated by the Italian Sailing Federation, concerning rule 18 'space at the buoy', which will be introduced into the Racing Rules in the next four years; the Open Skiff Class, having adopted the arbitration with the immediate discussion of protests on the water, has thus been chosen to test this rule, already explained in the first months of the year both during the instructors' course promoted by the Italian Open Skiff Class, and at the national "TIOS" (Top Italian Open Skiff) meeting, attended by the best helmsmen of last season.

"The Italian Open Skiff Class," its president Guido Sirolli tells us, "has been demonstrating great vitality this year ever since its first national meeting in Taranto. Now that the new 3.5m rig designed for the under-12s is widespread among our very young skippers, we are confident that by the end of the season we will have over 100 entries in this category!"

The city of Taranto is ready to welcome this youth sailing event, organised under the patronage of the Municipality of Taranto and thanks to the synergy and cooperation on land and in the water of several associations: with the Circolo Velico Azimuth, the Sailing Section of the Italian Navy, Ondabuena Academy, Sporting Club M. di Pulsano, Centro Velico Alto Jonio, and the Lega Navale Italiana section of Taranto are participating. The programme envisages three days of racing and 10 races in all (a maximum of four races per day, or five in the event of a delay in the programme), with the first start possible at 12 noon on Friday 17, and the next two at 11 a.m. and 10 a.m.

View entry list

Related Articles

Italian National Open Skiff Regatta concludes
Ideal conditions in the Mar Grande for the young sailors A wonderful conclusion to the 1st National Open Skiff regatta held in Taranto over three fabulous days of sun, wind, sport, and friendship: if on the eve of the event there was great satisfaction at having reached the record number of participants. Posted on 21 Mar
2023 AUS O'pen Skiff Championship
Visit to South of Perth YC worth the wait! Wow, what a week we've had at South of Perth YC for the 2023 AUS O'pen Skiff Champs. After missing out on hosting the 2021 AUS Championships thanks to Covid, the fleet finally made it to Perth for the Nationals. Posted on 15 Jan
2022 Manly Cup, NSW O'pen SKiff Championship
56 young sailors take part over the weekend Now in its third year of existence the 2022 Manly Cup took place Dec 3-4 at Manly Yacht Club. The Bruce Davis, Manly Cup is a junior one-design regatta seeing all 56 entrants sail the same O'pen Skiff junior sailing skiff, across three different fleets. Posted on 8 Dec 2022
O'pen Skiff "Un-Regatta" at Charleston
Including boat handling challenges such as capsizes, 360s, and stand-up sailing O'pen Skiff sailors from Hawaii to Puerto Rico traveled to James Island YC for the 2022 North American "Un-Regatta", and quickly bonded to the O'pen Skiff family atmosphere. Posted on 3 May 2022
Zhik Combined High Schools Sailing Championships
At Belmont 16ft Sailing Club, one of the most desirable sailing venues in the country The Zhik CHS sailing championships commenced this week at Belmont 16ft Sailing Club. The iconic event is steeped in history and has been a rite of passage for many young sailors. Many past winners include State, National, Olympic, SailGP and AC sailors. Posted on 12 Apr 2022
"Buy now / pay later club" youth hire fleet model
Launched by Skiff Sports Limited the exclusive UK distributor for the O'PEN Skiff class dinghy Skiff Sports Limited, the exclusive UK distributor for the O'PEN Skiff class dinghy has launched a cost effective way for clubs and sailing centers to buy either one, two or more of these great little boats in order to start a hire fleet. Posted on 10 Feb 2022
AUS O'pen Skiff Championships on Lake Macquarie
The vibe was positive and lots of sailors were keen to get back into some competitive racing This year's AUS O'pen Skiff titles took place at Mannering Park Amateur Sailing Club, a superb location backed up by an even better group of club members that made it happen. Posted on 21 Jan 2022
2021 Manly Cup O'pen Skiff Regatta
Incorporating the NSW State Titles Last weekend Manly Yacht Club hosted its 2nd annual Manly Cup, which incorporated the NSW State Titles. We had a large fleet of 57 boats across three fleets with a handful of sailors traveling from VIC. Posted on 6 Dec 2021
O'pen Skiff World Championships concludes
The only disappointment? The absence of major players from around the world The only disappointment? The absence of major players such as New Zealand, Australia, India, Thailand and Japan, due to the ongoing Covid restrictions still in place in those countries. We hope to be back next year, with all of them at racing. Posted on 18 Jul 2021
Sail Port Stephens day 2
The islands have it as Sail Port Stephens fleet heads offshore The 2021 Sail Port Stephens regatta switched to island time today for Race 2 of the Commodores Cup, with the fleet heading seawards for a race course where Mother Nature lays the marks - or at least the landmarks. Posted on 20 Apr 2021
Doyle Sails 2020 - By Sailors For Sailors 728x90 BOTTOMASB23-SW-1456x180-Banner-Bottom-REV-04Vaikobi 2021 Boots - FOOTER