NASTRO ROSA® Warm Up - EUROSAF Mixed Offshore European Championship

The start of this "World Premiere" for the new Olympic Discipline the European  Mixed offshore Championship take off with a nice sailing in front of the Iconic San Marco square in the very center of Venice.    An interested audience was welcoming the seven teams including several Olympic medals, Figaro sailors, ocean race veterans and offshore sailors, that took the start of 187nms distance race just outside the entrance of the Laguna di Venezia in a solid 12 knts north westerly breeze and nice flat water.

Right after the start, the fleet was divided by two different strategical approaches: some of the  teams were using a "code zero" heading mainly "on route" (approximately 120° to the first mark, the island of Susak in Croatia) while others were sailing more south  with the  Gennaker, heading toward a foreseen southerly wind-shift, with the Scirocco wind filling in the Adriatic Sea later in the evening.

Despite the two different strategies the fleet arrived almost packed at the rounding of the first mark after about 10 hours from the start. It was really nice to see how close is the offshore racing when sailed in one design boats.

Everything was “new”, included the boats but the passion of the sailors , the mnas, the class, the boatyard and the organizers was enough to make evrything going really well

Condition at night were breezy (in the range of 30 knts with some bumpy sea) but the south direction wind was helping the fleet to keep the race on a fast track.

All boats performed well with no fatal damages and all seven teams competed very closely till the rush final.

You can watch the tracking using the “replay” tag on the web page www.ssi.events to see how the fleet, after reaching  the mark of "San Giovanni in pelago", a very beautiful rock with a light house on the top on the Croatian costs, headed to the finishing line in Trieste right in front of the Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano.

The Austrian team was building a nice leading right after the start sailing as first towards the South wind that was foreseen in the weatherforecast. They rounded the Island of Susak in first followed by the the belgian Team the france and the Australian of Liz Wardley.

This top four boats sailed in a close pack in the following light breeze along the Croatia and Slovenian shore until a partially rebuilding breeze brought them to the finishing line in Trieste stretching a little bit the fleet. The leadership of the austrian was the becoming solid and they crossed the line at 2:00 am becoming the first European Champions of this new discipline! At 2:36 arrived the Belgian Team getting the silver medal, at 2:43 the Australians and 2:48 the france teams ended as sbronze medallist.

Team moored in front of the hospitality truck of the European Championship and the Nastro Rosa 2020, the Italian Sailing Tour that will be sailed in 2020 for the Mixed offshore Class, that was positioned at the entrance of the Barcolana Village were all the dozens of thousand visitors per day found all the info of the event.

Comments from the sailors have been enthhusiastic for this very first "premiere" of this new Olympic discipline, said Riccardo Simoneschi, of SSI and Race Manager of the event: "there is a lot of talking about this new discipline in the sailing world and I also was, personally, really interested in making a very first practical experience. I think we have learned a lot and seen the high potential of this discipline for sailing, despite many details that still have to be sorted out to make it working at the best. I'm positive and think that like every new idea, after a controversial starting, will find the right balance in the World of Sailing and in the Olympic if WS will be smart to make the right adjustments to the actual Olympic program.  Many thanks to  FIV, Eurosaf, YC Venezia ( Hosting Yacht Club) and Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano for their support, to  Marina di Sant'Elena for the logistic hospitality in Venice, to Barcolana for the hospitality in trieste and to the L30 Class for the effort put forward to be ready in time.”

Prize Giving has been held Saturday morning at 11 am in the Barcolana Village at the Prosecco Doc Hospitality in the beautiful and crowded Piazza dell’Unità in presence of a nice audience.

FINAL RANKING

1st > 🇦🇹 TEAM AUSTRIA 🥇Europeans Gold Medal
        Lisa Berger / Christian Kargl 2nd >🇧🇪 TEAM BELGIUM 🥈Europeans Silver Medal
         Sophie Faguet / Jonas Gerckens 3rd > 🇦🇺 TEAM AUSTRALIA
          Liz Wardley / Alberto Sonino 4th > 🇫🇷 TEAM FRANCE 🥉Europeans Bronze Medal
         Mathilde Geron / Pierre Leboucher 5th > 🇪🇸 TEAM SPAIN
         Ana Santamaria / Guillermo Altadill 6th > 🇺🇸 TEAM USA
         Barbara Karpinska / Peter Beker 7th > 🇮🇹 TEAM ITALY
         Giovanna Valsecchi / Andrea Pe