Musto Performance Skiff Regatta in Dongo (Lake Como, Italy) 21th-22th April

report & photos by Edoardo Amato

Last week-end 13 Musto Skiffs coming from 4 different countries (Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Great Britain) gathered at the Skiffsailing Club in Dongo (Lake of Como) for the usual regatta, which is now part of the Euro Cup Series.

This year we were forced to move this event to the very beginning of the season (while usually it takes place at the end of June) because we didn’t want it to overlap the MPS World Championship in Weymouth which is going to be one of the top events in the history of our class. However, the winter scenery (with most of the mountains still covered in snow) and the cold water didn’t discourage the MPS sailors from joining the regatta.

We have been very lucky as the weather conditions were very good on both days with a brilliant sunshine and 20 degrees (only few showers on Saturday evening) and the thermal wind built up properly.

We shared the race course with the laser 4000 and the Contender class making our race more challenging as we had some crossings while sailing either downwind and upwind!

On Saturday we managed to sail all the 3 races scheduled with a gentle steady breeze from the South and at the end of the day Dieter Brunner was leading the group with a 4th – 1st and 3rd place; Nicolas Duchoud gained a 2nd place with the same score of Dieter (2 – 2 – 4) and John Archer got a 3rd position (6 – 4 – 1).

Sunday morning was a bit cloudy but at around midday the sun came out and a strong wind started blowing from North with gusts over 25 knots. The Committee boat decided to wait for the wind to become more stable before setting the race course but this cautious decision didn’t prevent some brave sailors from going out sailing testing their skills in tough conditions.

All the people ashore had the opportunity to admire the incredible speed of the boat downwind with the spinnaker up! In half an hour the race course was laid down and the warning signal for Race 4 was given. Race 4 has been certainly one of the trickiest of the whole regatta with strong gusts and shifts that really put our sailing skills to the test. Christian Porsche dominated the whole race and had a win over Dieter Brunner and me. It was really exciting for me to get 3rd in that race because I started in last position and then I managed to catch up many positions!

Just before the start signal for Race 5 the wind began to drop and the race was sailed in a 12 knots shifty wind: shifts are not usual on our lake as we always sail with a thermal wind which is really steady. It was quite hard as there were sudden drop of wind and the risk of capsizing with the boat coming over us was high. Nicolas Duchoud won the race (gaining the 2nd event of the Euro Cup) showing the fleet impressive tactical skills, followed by Christian Porsche and Dieter Brunner. In the overall results Nicolas Duchoud (SUI 470) was first with the same score of Dieter Brunner (SUI 473) who got 2nd place and Christian Porsche (GER 314) well deserved the 3rd place. Congratulations to all the sailors!

I would like to thank the Skiffsailing Club of Dongo for organizing the event and hosting our class again and a special thank goes to the International Musto Performance Skiff Class and Musto Performance who generously provided great prizes for the competitors.