A Class Catamaran European Championships 2026 at Club Náutico Mar Menor – Preview
by Gordon Upton 14 May 06:58 PDT
31 May – 5 June 2026
Mar Menor – Spain © Victor Torres
We are only a short time away from the A-Cat European Championships again, and several sailors are onsite already. Geography and demographics are the trigger for when the Championships to be held. If the Worlds are being held outside Europe, it gets its own championships.
This year the Worlds are to be held in November at Tampa, Florida, so for the first time for the class in recent years, Spain has a major A-class event at the spa and resort town of Los Alcázares, racing on the sheltered waters of the Mar Menor lagoon, south of Alicante.
A popular sailing, water sports and wildlife region, the bath like temperature of the lagoon is a few degrees warmer than the nearby Mediterranean, this makes it even more of a draw. Reliable winds, with a regular sea breeze of 10-18kts and flat water make for ‘Cava sailing’ conditions. Foilers, especially, should love it.
Over the winter, a series of training camps had been taking place further up the coast in València. The POL team had had their boat container dropped off there after Auckland, so it seemed a no brainer to leave the boats there and to train during the winter rather than sit it out at the bleak, unsailable winter Baltic coast.
Several Spaniards already sail there, so the Polish lads, a couple of Hungarians and the class Czech mascot, Vladislav Ptasnik CHZ 1, all enjoyed winter sailing here. This sort of thing can prove invaluable and inevitably raises everyone’s performance regardless of their level and the camaraderie it generates.
This years A-Cat Euro Fiesta promises some good and hard competition as both the Open and Classic category World Champions are to be in attendance, together with a bunch of ex and several very eager potential champions. 82 sailors are booked in and each of the twin class categories will make two good size fleets. We can expect plenty of action and with 19 nationalities represented, it will be a full-on international event.
Looking at both the fields, even allowing for the absence of a few big-name Aussie or US sailors for various reasons, it’s not going to be an easy run for either of the 2025 Champions. There are sailors in both fleets who could be more than capable of turning over the current pair of Polish World Champions to take the European crown, so we will take a look here.
Classic Fleet – the ones with the red dot on their sails (44 boats)
The twin categories of the A-Class Cat are essentially the same boat. However, it is the dangly bits below the waterline, as the daggers are significantly different. The Classic category essentially has the daggerboard shape restricted to straight or a constant curve of a minimum 1.190m radius and 780mm depth from the hull exit point, and no race adjustable rudder foils are allowed. It must have one hull deliberately in the water during a race.
Skimming is allowed but anyone seen flying for more than a few boat lengths by a competitor can be protested and a DSQ will result. This self-policing seems to work, because, to date, no protests have been made.
The reigning 2025 European Champion, Teo Di Battista, is not defending. However, the sailor who was 3 points behind him at that tricky super light-wind Riccione 2025 Euros was Jacek Noetzel POL 1 and he is signed up. In Auckland Worlds back in November, Jacek was clearly the Classic man to beat. His new design Exploder C foils had subtle sectional changes throughout their length, but kept the leading edge legally within constant curve radius parameter.
These probably proved decisive at that level of competition. His Bryt sail was perfect for him, and many years as the father of the POL A-Class at his Sopot based UKS Navigo club, and in both the Open foiler and Classic disciplines, finally did it. He sailed faultlessly to gain a clear run of straight bullets in that event in all wind conditions.
However, that was in the absence of the 2024 Classic World Champion, Gustavo Doreste Blanco ESP 72, as the Spanish former Olympian had already declared he wouldn’t be contesting his World title in New Zealand. But Gustavo has not been idle. Recently he topped the podium at the Italia Cup at Malcesine. His efficient, neat, no-nonsense style coupled with home advantage could prove the key at Los Alázares, although the pair have not met since the 2024 Puntala Worlds.
Marco Radman ITA 55 was the next sailor on that Garda Classic podium. He has been in the top set of sailors for a few years now in the big events. His quiet reserved confidence makes him a very dangerous opponent and underestimating him could be a mistake. This former Hobie ace is very good in lighter airs too and one to watch.
The third sailor of that winning Garda trio is Barcelona sailor Enrique Cornejo ESP 5. He is a sailor of many years’ experience and is a big character in the Spanish fleet. The ebullient Enrique is hard to miss in a crowd. He was fourth at the 2022 Garda Euros, has been scoring some great results recently and looks to be coming good just at the right time for his home event.
The FRA fleet, a largely Classic one, has a decent turnout at this regatta, with nine sailors here.
Emmanuel Le Chapelier FRA 1 was their top finisher and fifth at the 2024 Toulon Worlds. This former F16 champion is a very fast sailor who has scored up in the big places on occasions in this class too and would be expected to be up in the action with the leaders. Then there are another few sailors of note. José A López ESP 52 is another Barcelona lad and was only a couple of points behind Marco in Toulon. Right behind him at that event was Alessandro Rosi ITA 7. This former Italian #1 has consistently proved himself one of the top ITA Classic sailors alongside Marco and could cause problems for the top place sailors.
Other sailors to look out for could be Francesco Maniero ITA 75 and Micky Todd ESP 7. Both can be fast on occasions and incidentally are both sailmakers too with Challenger and Hammer being well represented.
Outside the sailors who qualify for the Euro crown is another former sailmaker, Andrew Landenberger AUS 308. One of only two AUS sailors, this former Aussie Olympic medallist and multiple World Champ has pedigree written all over him. We should expect to see Landy in the top five, even on a bad day. Chris Batchelor, ISV 15 is one of the top New World sailors and a regular on the US circuit. He had a superb 2025 Euros, with a second overall, so maybe we can expect something special again? He is also joined by Mike Kranz USA 7 and Gilbert Macpherson USA 777 to fly the flag for the US.
For the design enthusiasts, this fleet will see the big event debut of the new Polish built Exploder 2026 Classic design. It has a new hull shape, designed again by Spanish design guru Gonzalo Rodondo. It features more pronounced hull rocker and a fatter stern. It is said to work well when trapezing downwind and allows it to skim better. It also features those foils Jacek was using and has a more refined control line layout. And Gustavo will be sailing one…
Open Fleet – i.e. foiling cats (38 boats)
The A-Cat as a class is acknowledged to be a hard yet rewarding boat to sail well. It rewards those who love to tinker with the subtle rig and foil settings, meaning that if some things just few mm out, you can haemorrhage boat speed if you are not careful. Now add to that circus skills on top, and you have the Open fleet sailor.
Their main foils, as in the Classics, must be inserted from the top down, and not exceed the maximum hull width at any point. But they can make the whole 75kg boat leave the water when moving at about 11kts at from 7kts wind speed, hence the odd foil shapes. They are currently a Z shape.
All the foils can and are adjusted ‘on the fly’ to get the desired ride height, and the rudders, with their winglets, will providing about 15% of the total lift, act as the stabiliser were it a aeroplane. However, not having auto adjustable foils, as in a boat like the Moth, it requires the sailor to move their bodyweight fore and aft to get a semblance of stability.
This when coupled with correct sail settings and trim, can result in speeds in excess of 36 kts in the right hands and conditions. The top third of the fleet will usually be able to foil upwind in 12kts of wind also.
The top sailor in this Open category is Kuba Surowiec, POL 41. He is a three-time consecutive and current World Champion and is the reigning European Champ. Also from the Sopot UKS club, this 33-year-old is the obvious one for the fleet to have to chase down. But beware, his downwind pace is stunning, virtually uncatchable in fact and being built like a jockey, he has learned the techniques for getting up on his foils in light airs before anyone else. He is a weapon.
However, he is beatable and the current Italian Open Champ, Lamberto Cesare ITA 13, has been really ramping up the speed over the last few years as the result of this Garda based sailor’s meticulous attention to detail, careful boat set-up. Together with help from ‘The Squad’, a travelling band of ITA skilled training buddies that include Marco Anessi ITA 71 and Giuseppi Colombo ITA 72, he has just beaten Kuba at a few Italian based events in recent times, including the latest Italia Cup back in April.
He certainly has the skills and boat setup. But he will have to sail the campaign of his life and need to have a spot of luck with no breakages.
Triple World Champ Mischa Heemskerk NED 7 is racing too. He wasn’t at Auckland last year, but was 3rd at Riccione, and in conditions not totally suited to him wind-wise either. A master of many years’ experience at the top, his physical guns out style is at odds with that of Kuba or Lamberto. Sailing the DNA F1x, he and his fellow flying Dutchman and Mr DNA, PJ Dwarsluis NED 28, usually turn up with an innovation or two. Be it a weird DN Ice Yacht style bendy rig, or a pin-head sail, he and the DNA team came up with the decksweeper sail and continue to push the boundaries of the class as ever.
Manuel Calavia ESP 11 is another Barcelona based sailor and the former 2018 Euro Champ. Hopefully he will be on form, as he can be frighteningly fast when he is, in fact finished sixth in the 2024 Worlds. We also have another pair of fast Spanish lads. Abdon Ibáñez ESP 74 – the quieter one and Toni Ballester ESP 75 – the less quieter one and are both Real Club Náutico Valencia sailors.
They seem to chase each other around the course all day and both got top ten Euro positions last year. Looking for one, you’d always find the other nearby and last time, Abdon, the Spanish fleet President, had a superb event with 4th overall.
From Spain’s Northern neighbour, we have Emmanuel Dóde FRA 2. He is another sailor rather similar to Lamberto in the way he approaches his racing. This widely travelled sailor, seen at many of the international events, is very prepared, concentrated and focussed. His attention to detail can frequently pay off in the right conditions and had sixth last year.
We also see Michal Korneszczuk POL 111 is another of the Polish team who also travels the circuit widely. At the 25 Worlds he was tenth and proved he can sail in the big stuff. But in the Riccione Euros, he managed seventh place and only losing to Emmanuel on countback in the psychologically tough light winds.
And we have the Swiss sailor Robin Maeder SUI 7. He is also capable of putting in good finishes, always looking as he is enjoying himself. A Scheuer team sailor, he was recently seen at the Garda Spring Regatta with their new Fiberfoam Flexy mast, which has more fore and aft stiffness control adjustment. He won that one. It will be interesting to see the results when it sails against the opposition in a longer comp and I’m sure a few will have a test flight with it as well.
And there’s Vladi of course. The likable Czech sailor has greatly progressed as a result of travelling to Garda and training frequently to put in some good results in big events.
This Championships looks like it promises to be a good one. Great reliable winds, no big seas, but enough lumps to keep the sailors on their toes. Both fleets have very strong competition within, even without a few of the usual suspects from the Aussie fleet being able to make it over currently. This one is in no way a done deal as to who will emerge victorious.
However, with sun, sea, Sangria, what’s not to like here? Pass me the Tapas please….
