Please select your home edition
Edition
Savvy Navvy 2024

2022 D-One Gold Cup at Centro Vela Alto Lario, Gravedona, Italy

by D-One Class Association 7 Jun 2022 17:18 UTC 26-29 May 2022
D-One Gold Cup 2022 at Lake Como © Tommaso Buzzi

The D-One has always specialised in great championships in beautiful European locations, so, after two years of very little international sailing, D-One sailors from all over Europe are delighted to have finished a fantastic Gold Cup on Lake Como, hosted by Centro Vela Alto Lario at Gravedona.

A warm-up event was held with the Yacht Club Dervio, on the opposite side of the lake, the weekend before, and showed the 15 boats attending that this was going to be a cracker. The baking sunshine brought 15-18 knots of thermal southerly, with a continuous range of shifts and gusts meaning that no particular route was a certain winner either upwind or down.

Alessandro Novi (ITA) showed tremendous pace to win the event. Marek Bachtik (CZE), Patrick Rufenacht (SUI) and Nick Crickmore (GBR) also found a way to the top of a fairly high-scoring event, but all had some erratic results when caught out by the shifts, or just an out-of-practice capsize. These top four awaited the arrival of the rest of the Gold Cup fleet with more or less confidence in their mastery of the lake conditions.

The Gold Cup itself was held after a short break for tourism. 26 boats from 8 nations raced for 3 days, completing 8 races.

Conditions mostly remained in the ideal but solid 12-17 knots range, with the full range of shifts, gusts, lulls and bends appearing and disappearing as the course was moved to suit the day's wind pattern by the excellent PRO Walther Ghezzi and his team.

Planned start times were in the early afternoon, giving a pleasantly light sail upwind to the start, three races in generally increasing wind, and then an awesome 2 mile downwind blast home to emergency pasta, pizza and beer laid on the the club.

The third day was started at 11 in the morning to get two races in before the forecast storm, which failed to put a damper on the previous day's dinner at the Club. The fourth day was lost to the aftermath of a big rain storm, but most aching bodies were satisfied by then, and there were some very long journeys home which could start earlier than expected.

Needless to say that the best won, so Nick Craig (GBR) won the #goldcup22, behind him Alessandro Novi (ITA) and in third place Ulrich Breuer (GER). Nick showed amazing pace and great starting throughout to win all the races, but was run hard at times by Alessandro Novi. After that the points were pretty close to Giles Chipperfield (GBR) and Marek Bachtik (CZE), as everyone had their moments of glory and catastrophe.

The next block of the fleet had very tight racing: only 10 points separated 6th to 12th places, and while Italian Class Secretary Tommaso Buzzi was delighted with 6th, Michael Mutti (SUI) with a 2nd and 4th may feel surprised to end up in 12th overall. It was fairly evident as well that many of us were out of practice with big fleet racing, as busy mark roundings and urgent gybes started tempting the photographers for some fun.

The prize for the furthest travelled went to Geza Matyasovszkyi (HUN) and, after some dispute, the prize for oldest competitor was ceded by Enrico Ciferri to GianLuca Giorgi (ITA)

Huge thanks to #avalcdv, and especially President Emanuela Migliavada and PRO Walter Ghezzi, as well as the fabulous Elena and Fabio in the clubhouse. They made a real wonderful event in and out of the water!

This was an unexpectedly good turnout after such a long pause, so thank you to everyone for travelling. It was great to see the return of fast German sailors to the class, and also the influx of new Italian sailors who seem to be learning very quickly. Welcome also to our first ever Spanish sailor Juan Maristany. The Austrian fleet is growing enormously, only constrained by the difficulty of getting boats built by Devoti during the current period, and while we missed our French friends we are assured they will be back soon.

The D-one remains an interesting and attractive class made up of people who love this boat, and it is wonderful to be back sailing with our friends in beautiful places. The next event is the Italian National Championships at Imperia YC, then the European Championships at Lake Balaton in September. Details as always at www.d-oneassociation.org

We are already planning for the Gold Cup 2023 in Austria, probably at the end of May on the Wolfgangsee at St Gilgen, another fairy-tale location near Salzburg. We look forward to seeing you all soon and continuing this most enjoyable journey.

Overall Results:

PosSail NoHelmR1R2R3R4R5R6R7R8Pts
1GBR 5CRAIG NICK‑111111117
2ITA101NOVI ALESSANDRO3‑433223218
3GER 47BREUER ULI426‑11464329
4GBR 904CHIPPERFIELD GILES86(dnc)4352533
5CZE 4BACHTIK MAREK12322(dnf)351138
6ITA 102BUZZI TOMMASO ANDREA5‑108971010655
7AUT 20FELIX HOFINGER‑148569139757
8AUT 38THOMAS DONHAL13710557‑151461
9GBR 908JASON PYKE1059‑1515861063
10GBR 1101FAVELL NICK6917769‑19963
11ITA 111GASPARINI ALESSANDRO9‑2041217127465
12SUI 27MICHAEL MUTTI212118(dnf)4171367
13ITA 315CIFERRI ENRICO1114131010‑1713879
14SUI 7PATRICK RUFENACHT7‑161414811121682
15GER 33FRANK SUCHANEK‑1717716141681593
16GBR 907COLLIER‑BROOKS MICHELLE161118131614‑2012100
17ITA 109BOGLIONE GIAN DOMENICO1915121719‑211119112
18ITA 110DE BENEDICTIS RENATO151815‑2013181420113
19GBR 8CROCKMORE NICK(dnf)13161818191818120
20ITA 207GILI FRANCESCO201919‑2112151621122
21HUN 18GEZA MATYASOVSZKI18(dnc)dnc1911222217136
22ITA 15BARSOTTI MICHELE2222212220(dns)2123151
23ESP 52JUAN MARISTANY23212023(dnf)20dns22156
24ITA 5GIORGI GIANLUCA23212023(dnf)20dns22156
25SUI 101ANDREAS VON ARX(dnf)dncdncdncdnsdns23dns185
26AUT 21GERALD HURBAN(dnc)dncdncdncdnsdnsdncdns189

Related Articles

D-One UK National Championship in Plymouth
Nick Craig collects a string of bullets The D1 Nationals were held jointly with the 4000s and ISOs at the Royal Western Yacht Club in Plymouth from 28th-30th June. Many boats arrived on the Thursday and set up in bright summer conditions although still a little cold. Posted on 9 Jul
Devoti D-One Gold Cup 2024 at Imperia, Italy
On the glorious Italian Riviera, east of San Remo The D-One has always specialised in a very international travelling circuit to pleasant locations around Europe, so was hit hard in the Covid era. It was great to see it bounce back with a wonderful championship at Imperia, on the Italian Riviera. Posted on 12 Jun
4000, ISO and D1 Nationals to be held in Plymouth
Three day event to be held in June for the classes The 4000 Class will be joined by National Championships for both the D1 and ISO Class Dinghies to compete over a three-day event. Posted on 5 Mar
Great North Asymmetric Challenge preview
Enter now for this ever-growing September event Bassenthwaite Sailing Club's Great North Asymmetric Challenge (known as the GNAC) will be held on the 16th and 17th September. For those who like a gybe this is a firm favourite in the northern sailing calendar. This years event is sponsored by Trident. Posted on 19 Aug 2023
Battle of the Hikers preview
No trapeze? Get to Rutland this May! The very popular Battle of the Hikers will take place on the 27th and 28th May 2023. 30+ boats are expected. The Graduates were the biggest class last time. Nick Craig sailing his OK was the overall winner. Posted on 18 Mar 2023
Multi-class open at Oxford preview
April event for Contender, D-One and K6 has new sponsor Oxford Sailing Club has partnered with Sailing Chandlery to sponsor the Club's multi class open meeting on 1 and 2 April this year. Posted on 3 Feb 2023
Finn and D One Open at Warsash
Thirty-five boats sailed in absolutely perfect conditions What a wonderful time of the year the Autumn is for dinghy sailing! Thirty-five boats sailed in absolutely perfect conditions at Warsash Sailing Club for the British Finn and D-One Open event. Posted on 11 Oct 2022
11th Great North Asymmetric Challenge
74 boats ignored the forecast and headed to Costa del Bass 74 boats ignored the forecast and headed to Costa del Bass for the Great North Asymmetric Challenge. This popular event attracts the who's who of asymmetric sailing in the North, with this year's entries over double what they were pre-Covid. Posted on 20 Sep 2022
D-One Nationals at the Lymington Dinghy Regatta
Joining many, many other dinghies over the weekend The D-One fleet joined many, many other dinghies over the weekend to enjoy the combined hospitality of Royal Lymington Yacht Club and Lymington Town Sailing Club for their annual dinghy regatta. Posted on 15 Jul 2022
2022 D-One Gold Cup to be held at Lake Como
The beautiful Italian lake is the venue the event in May The D-One class has always been notable for a European regatta circuit in fantastic locations, and after two years of very little international sailing, the D-One community is looking very enthusiastic for the upcoming Gold Cup. Posted on 24 Apr 2022
Maritimo 2023 S600 FOOTERSavvy Navvy 2024