06/06/2026
The party's over, it's time to call it a day, they've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away⊠And the A-Cat 2026 European Championships come to an end. The final day turned out to be Thursday this time. Out on the Mar Menor, race officials went out at 10am to monitor real world conditions rather than relying on forecasters or computer algorithms, sending back reports every 15 mins to Juan Antonio, the PRO, who needed to formulate a plan of Go/No GO for the final scheduled race day. The overnight winds coupled with the less than 6m deep lagoon was producing a sharp 1m chop in addition to the 20, gusting 24kt winds. They were supposed to be dropping, but at 12pm were still just the same. Eventually, Juan decided to can the last races, knowing survival conditions are not a particularly good way to end such a great event. Snapping a mast or splitting a hull open simply wasnât worth it, and many competitors had started to knock their boats down already.
Thus, the results stayed as they were. Jacek Noetzel POL1, and Kuba Surowiec POL 41 were crowned 2026 European Champions in a repeat of the 2025 Worlds result. Well done indeed!
And what have we learned this time girls and boys?
The main difference on the racetrack was the introduction of the top gate replacing to old top mark and spreader pattern. It was originally instigated by the AUS sailors and had been used in their events for a few years. Itâs advantage is to open up more tactical choices at the top. The old layout tended to send sailors over to the left of the course as the top was always rounded to starboard and by the time they got to the spreader mark, most had established that as their initial direction unless they were particularly confident of the right side being markedly better. It took a brave and confident leader to gybe at the spreader to go right. And that would be compounded by having to duck many of the upwind sailors closing on the top mark.
The gate tends to remove that aspect so sailors could make their decision earlier and sail accordingly. Of course this wonât prevent incidents if sailors suddenly changed their mind and wanted the other mark, but they all know the basic rules of collisions at sea and in this event, I think only 2 or so incidents happened as a result, both from having eyes not being outside the boat in reality. On certain races either side would get equal favour and after they became used to the novelty, it looked from outside to work pretty well. The fear of head on collisions or sailors gybing right back into the approaching boats didnât really materialise other in one unfortunate incident.
The right downwind became well used in many cases. Meanwhile at the bottom gate thing just went as usual. Judging the correct gybe point from several hundreds of meters away accurately enough to thread the needle, at upwards of 30 kts, is a decided skill. Any wind shift or crossing boat would play havoc with your calculations.
Another change was the Grand Prix finish, whereby as the lead boat finishes the race, all the others finish the race as their current lap is completed. This worked well also. I a few occasions, wise slower sailors actually slowed as they were about to be lapped befor they rounded the bottom mark, saving themselves another 5 mile of sailing, and the longer wait for the finishers.
On the racecourse, the most noticeable thing on the Open course was Team DNAâs âDNâ style bendy rigs. There were the v2.0 incarnations of the ones first revealed at PuntAla in 2024. They have been refined but are still a work in progress none the less. They are conceived with the idea of having much more controllable power modes with a totally newly built special mast that allows enormous bend characteristics, as seen on the DN class Ice-yachts. Mischa and PJ are still exploring and refining the concept but feel it could have great potential. Not least a mast that bendy would end the broken mast situation if nothing else. They are to be hugely commended for testing and experimenting at a major event. It provides a superb opportunity to try modes and settings in a high-end competition scenario, something many others would shy away from. We all follow their developments with great interest as this class loved this stuff!
Race wise, new hull shapes and foil shapes continue to arrive, as do new techniques for sailing them. There is still debate in the Classic fleet as to the perfect hull shape. Some go uphill very fast, others downhill fast. Some love high winds and waves, others less so, but score in the lighter stuff. The latest Exploder 2026 Classic, with its more pronounced rocker, dubbed the âBelugaâ by the ESP sailors, is very fast indeed downwind, but proved currently less so upwind until a mode or sail combination is discovered. Jacek sailed a foiling Exploder hull with new shaped foils. The slimmer hull goes fast through the water upwind and his trademark downwind trapezing technique of being virtually flat and right on the rear quarter works to encourage the boards to get into a fast-skimming mode, although care must be taken to remain class legal and not to inadvertently allow any fully foiling situation tyo develop. Andrew Landenberger on the Scheuer G8 has a fatter hull, but this allows the boat to be very fast upwind in a blow, and with Landyâs weight far forward in light airs, the drag reduction is significant. He also is a master of downwind skimming and is never off the trapeze although further forward than Jacek as his buoyancy is in a different area to the Exploder. Both sailors achieved four bullets each, so race tactics seemed to be the deciding factor. But with only a handful of points separating the top 5 riders, any mistakes would have been ruthlessly punished.
On the Open fleet, Kubaâs cool head under pressure coupled with his high downwind foiling technique is the answer for him as ever. He has this mind thing going on, whereby if he has a poor race (poor!, I mean comes third or something equally catastrophic from his point of view of course), he will sail off away, and sit hove to with his back on the mast and just gaze up the course as though he is reloading and test running the next race in his brain. Then inevitably he blasts it. I have seen this on several occasion now in crucial high-pressure scenarios. His monkey is very much firmly in its box*.
However, it was not a clean sweep for him either. He certainly didnât dominate the upwind, rounding the top mark first on the initial lap was not a given by any means. Lamberto Cesare scored 3 bullets as well and sailed a superb championship and a mistake by Kuba would have seen the Italian Champ pounce, as he was only 3 point behind. The Swedish Nacra 17 Olympic âSpecial Guest Starâ Emil JĂ€rudd was a handful for them both at times too. If he can master consistent top 3 finishes, he would become a real threat to them all, and Marco Anessi was only a point behind Emil, and he too was astoundingly fast at times.
But at the end, the vast majority of sailors were exceptionally happy with this event under the control of the fantastic Maria, Ignacio, and her team, The venue is perfect, the proximity from pits to beach launching area is minimal and space is optimised for all the sailors. They, together with the ESP double act of Abdon and Toni have done their event proud. We will certainly return here.
Thanks to all involved, the minelayers, safety team under the competent direction of Javi, all the race op teams and the Jury who do much hidden work in the class in addition to sorting sailorâs disputes. Thanks to all those sailors and carbon experts who helped fix bruised boats in the pits and a special mention Mariaâs fast little assistant Martina, always willing to nip about, fetching stuff, recording stuff, grabbing trolleys, you were all brilliant.
Adios Amigos!
Bring on Florida.
