The 10th anniversary edition of Foiling Week is a wrap
by We Are Foiling 6 Jul 2023 06:47 NZST
26 June - 5 July 2023
With the 10th anniversary of Foiling Week having come to an end, sailors, organizers and partners are looking back at ten beautiful competition days in eight exciting classes, as the Waszp, Moth, ETF26, 69F, Flying Phantom, Wingfoil, IQFoil and SuMoth teams foiled on the Lake Garda in front of Fraglia Vela Malcesine.
- Frenchman Balanger wins first place in Moth class ahead of Italian Simone Salva' and
- Cron / Chambet first in the Flying Phantom class
- The overall winner of the Sumoth Challenge 2023 is the Audace Team from the University of Trieste
The last award ceremony of the series took place for the Moth, Flying Phantom, Wingfoil and SuMoth classes, after a spectacular day out on the water, with the wind conditions that Garda is famous for, a perfect way to wrap up this year's Foiling Week.
From the 76 Moths entered in Foiling Week, first place was won by Frenchman Enzo Balanger, followed by Fraglia Vela Malcesine talent Simone Salvà and in third Giles Scott from the UK, tactician aboard INEOS Britannia in the America's Cup. Fourth place to Simon Hiscocks from the UK and fifth place to Seb Menzies from New Zealand.
Vakaros awarded two athletes with an Atlas 2 as part of their Moth Demo Challenge. Ben Rosenberg from the USA won the top speed award, clocking 32 knots and Seb Menzies as the highest ranked participant in the Demo Challenge.
Vakaros awarded two athletes with an Atlas 2 as part of their Moth Demo Challenge. Ben Rosenberg from the USA won the top speed award, clocking 32 knots and Seb Menzies as the highest ranked participant in the Demo Challenge.
Clement Colmas from France won the Wingfoil Class, followed by Victor Loof from Norway and Daniel Wilson from the UK.
Clément Cron and Louis Chambet won the Flying Phantom Class, followed in second place by Alex Schneiter and Kristoffer Jonsson. Marie Mazuay and Quentin Princivale finished third.
Team Audace from the University of Trieste, finished in first place overall, winning the Foiling SuMoth Challenge 2023. Awarding the students on stage were Todd McGuire, Managing Director of 11th Hour Racing, the main sponsor of the challenge between universities around the world, and Bruno Giuntoli, Founder and Manager of the project.
All first place winners got awarded a Garmin Quatix 7 watch.
Since 2014 there have been 10 editions of Foiling Week in Italy, 5 special events in Australia, USA and Saudi Arabia. This comes to a total of 88 days of racing and collateral events, 1,720 athletes and +25,000 direct contacts. When including the previous 300 Forum sessions, this adds another 1,000 guests and 100,000 views. With the reach of the steadily growing social media at an average monthly reach of over 4 million, and this year's attendance of 270 sailors participating on 223 boats from 25 nations, it's a record breaking year for Foiling Week.
Foiling Week receives essential support from its partners, some who have been involved since the very start. "We are grateful to share our journey with partners that believe in our event with passion, and I would like to thank them one by one: GAC Pindar, SLAM, Torqeedo, Tesla, Vakaros, Gottifredi Maffioli, HiNelson, Biodesign Foundation, NLComp, Green Future Project and ReCarbon," said Luca Rizzotti, founder and president of Foiling Week.
Over the past few days, the Biodesign Foundation presented the Custodian project here, in search of effective solutions for the protection of nature by cleaning beaches, rivers and oceans. Its founder, Roberto Guerini, dedicated an engaging message to the participants of Foiling Week.
Throughout the event, Foiling Week is managed by an operations and media team of 16 professionals from eight different countries. Besides the sleepless nights, the total hours of sleep of the team during the event amounted to approximately 1,100 hours. This resulted in an average espresso intake of 5 cups per person per day.
Foiling Week organization worked closely together with the team of host venue Fraglia Vela Malcesine consisting of 35 people (ranging between 17 and 84 years old), of whom 15 are female. We like to give special thanks to President Gianni Testa, Director Mattia Lovati (at his tenth Foiling Week), Bojan Gale, Emil Toblini, Bruno Bottacini, Stella Treccani, Marco Balich, Tim Hancock, Ettore Oradini, Paolo Lonardi, Maurizio Pontoni, Gerard Vos, Milos Diiasio, Lisa Sartori, Mia Benamati, Gaia Bergonzini, Alessandro Angelini, Graziano Pontoni, Alvise Weber, Caterina Montini, Gabriele Ghirotti, Valerio Brighenti, Mirco Babini, Luigi Chincarini, Chiara Piccoli, Massimiliano Benamati, Luciano Angelini, Attilio Meletti, Roland Rienzner, Flavio Benamati, Angelino Moscardo, Antonio Chang, Giacomo Grosselli, Angela Trawoeger and Jan Meletti.
The Race Office consisted of 8 people, headed by Principle Race Officer Tim Hancock. They ran 60+ races over the course of 8 days using 10 ribs, 50 onshore warning signals and two starting vessels.
Next Foiling Week will take place from June 24 - June 30 2024 and will be dedicated to youth. Luca Rizzotti: "We are looking forward to including more workshops, masterclasses and other educational opportunities that will allow us to grow youth participation in Foiling and to educate youth to become more aware of the different opportunities in the community".
Official results can be found HERE
Photos, videos and more information can be found at www.foilingweek.com