Lessons learned at Arco

• Tacking on the lay-line:  Although you had to foot of the line, it paid off not to oversail the first mark.  Especially Chris and Scott tacked at the right places and kept going very fast without doing the extra meters.
• Tacking in strong breeze (near the rocks): Do not go to the back of the boat, the boat will go into the air instead of going through the wind. If you go in over the daggerboard, the boat turns on its daggerboards and you will turn very quickly. Slow the boat down till 11-12 knots before you tack.
• Gybing: keep the bows up and the boat turns super fast. Ease the sheet to get the pressure of the bow, turn quicky and get it going again. Once the bow digs in the boat stops and you loose all momentum.
• Wildthing: Keep the boat on the boards! Once the nose goes in, ease sheet, luff, use a wave to get the nose up and accelerate again. Once you recognize when the boat is on the boards you can start to play with it. Chris works his sheet a lot.
• Wildthing 2: If the wind picks up and you are not trapezing, pull some cunningham for more control, especially if you are under 80kgs.
• Wildthing 3: Do not oversheet!!
• Trapezing downwind: Practice your weak side. Most people have a preference for one tack.
• Trapezing downwind 2: Pull up the boards a little if the boat flips out of the water too often.
• Trapezing downwind 3: Watch your telltales, many people sail too high, if the telltales on the weatherside are fluffing it does not makes sense to seek extra pressure by luffing, just bend your knees.
• Trapezing downwind 4: steer around the waves, even the small ones (I ignored a small wave  and pitchpoled)
• Trapezing downwind 5: Turn your boat into a apparent windmachine by flattening out the main sail Brad-style by pulling the sheet hard. It leads to more control and higher endspeeds.
• Markroundings: Practice your markroundings and optimize your boat lay-out for it. Many meters can be won or lost here.
• Increase the purchase on your mainsheet system. 9,5:1 is minimum, we see more and more sailors sailing with 10:1, 11:1 and 12:1
• Prepare your boards and rudders. Polish these before the regatta and use either Waxsealer or Hullkote to make the foils as smooth as possible 
• Mastrake: We sailed with slightly more mastrake then at home due to the short waves. It makes the boat easier to sail both upwind and downwind.
• Copy the set-up/settings of the topsailors. They have sorted it out and you lack the time to sort it out yourself.
• Get more time on the water. This is easier said then done. Better more short sails then a few long ones.
• Practice with a GPS. With a GPS you can train alone and still improve yourself. (more consistent speeds en higher endspeeds)

Video Europeans

Landy wins Europeans

Landy, European Champ

Manolo upwind

Stevie wins race 7 and 9

Arno scores personal best at 9th overall

Sjoerd Hoekstra fully concentrated  on his new DNA

 Roeland on black beauty

Jack Benson 2nd junior

Former F18 sailor Remco Kenbeek on Felix' DNA

 Murray at the first mark

Mischa upwind in superb style

Wonderful sailing at a beautiful location, a great host club and a perfect organisation by The Swiss. Conditions between 10 and 20 knots.

Landy and Brad  (number 3) showed that trapezing downwind makes a difference on Lake Garda. Last year they were already quick downwind in Danmark and this time the results showed it too. The Europeans sailed a bit more conservative and only Manolo, Thilo (best junior)  and Mischa could keep up downwind trapezing.

Chris scored a well earned second, he did not trapeze downwind but by working hard he squeezed all possible speed out of his boat.

Stevie was relatively late in Arco and needed too much time to sort out his rig. Once he was up too pace he was once again the guy to beat. He did win races 7 and 9.

Mischa missed the top 10 by an OCS in race 7 which could have been a second. Mike Drummond completed the top 10 and his son Finn scored a 25th on his debut, which was remarkable as he was one of the lighter guys (72 kgs)

30 DNA's of the 120 produced were present. DNA scored 4 boats in the top 10 and 14 in the top 25. Micky Todd did very well (12th) and Jack, Donald, Bruce, Mischa and Roeland were in the top 20 too.

DNA, Scheurer, Nikita and Vision seem all to be competitive. The general impression was that the DNA was the easiest to sail in the breeze, both upwind and downwind, The Scheurer is easy to keep in the groove upwind, the Nikita seems to have an edge upwind under 12 knots, the Vision is a fast allround boat but according to Chris (and Piet)  less suitable for trapezing downwind (design choice).

Two trends in this regatta; Fat is fast as you had to be quick upwind in the first leg because the rich got richer in this regatta. Trapezing downwind in the relatively flat water of Lake Garda is faster but needs practice as Landy and Brad showed.

The Europeans do  have to practice more as we saw only 4 Europeans in the top 10! The Aussies still rule.

Arno, Mischa and PJ sailed with a new Landenberger Membrane sail which was cut for their ARC mast and especially Arno and Mischa looked very fast upwind. Arno could sail very deep downwind too.

Stevie (Brewin), Mike Drummond (Brewin), Jack Benson (Brewin), Bruce Mahoney (Glaser), Roeland (Landenberger MAXX) and Remco (Landenberger membrane) used an ARC mast as well.

results at :http://www.acateuro2012.ch/dp/sites/default/files/a-class_final.pdf
More pics at: http://www.slidebox.it/CircoloVelaArco/Europeo-Classe-A/23782543_39HDpG#!i=1929136816&k=3wTM4Z6