The 2023 ILCA season has started now, first main goal for our athletes is starting this Sunday at Andora, Italy. There are 400 sailors between the classes, ILCA 7 and ILCA 6 women and men. “We are all reunited at Andora, beautiful place and wonderful food at the Ligurian coast. We had good winds for the training and the regatta is coming now close. We have with us Pavlos, Filip, Tonci, Finn, Ann Marie, and many many others. They are getting ready for the regatta, to who I wish all the best, but first and foremost I hope they have fun and enjoy a wonderful championship”. Declares Luca Devoti, who is present together with the ILCA guru, Chris Caldecott representing the Devoti Sailing team. Marcon from Marcon Yachting and Charterboat.eu are also present at the event for any support and assistance from DevotiSailing.
We have been in contact with Pavlos, the current European Champion, who states how he feels about the regatta. “Personally this is my first time here in Andora, we had a couple of days training with a wide variety of conditions and directions. This is kind of good, so we are aware of what we can expect for the championship. Generally blowing from the south almost every day, which can be pretty challenging. Today we had wind from north-east, which makes more tricky the technical adaptation. I have to say my new Devoti ILCA is really good, we have one more sailing day today, then we rest on Saturday and go on with the measurements, we will start Sunday with three days of qualifications and three of finals. The goal is all about being consistent in the variety of conditions and being above until the end.”
Tonci is also warming up for this super important event and states. “Here in Andora so far everything looks good, we had a great mix of conditions in the last three days, we are still preparing the last few things with the equipment. I feel that everything is going good, pretty much all is set, we just need to finish up with the registration and measurements, I personally feel ready for the race and hope again some strong results from the Devoti Team”.
Filip preparing all the last things needed for this europeans, has arrived to Andora with a strong bagage of the last races in Croatia, where he has demonstrated super strong results, not loosing the focus on any race, winning all of the races this year, the Malta nationals, Croatian nationals and Mornar Grand prix . “Yesterday we did our third session here in Andora, so far I really like this venue, it is very interesting for me. We had pretty strong wind in the beginning and then quite light, however for the championship I guess we will be having a mix of all conditions. I feel ready for that, looking forwards for it, it will be a very tricky venue. This is the first peak regatta of this season so it will be interesting to see how all top guys are ready for the season.”