A-Cat Europeans 2026: Final Results

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A-Cat Europeans 2026 Final Day

All images by Gordon Upton Photography. Check his fb page for more here

Strong winds prevented any racing on Friday, thus results stay as the day before. Close fight in the Open Foiling fleet and Landy charging in the Classics would have made for quite interesting final races.

Current World Champs in both fleets claimed this 2026 Europeans. Thee Polish sailors continue their domination of the A-Class.

Good time give Jakub Kopylowicz and the Exploder team a shout for such work done all these years, putting the Polish yard and the local Navigo Club in Sopot at the front of the A-Class performance (add the 5 World Titles for the Exploder Scorpion in the F18 Class). Sailors win the regattas, but in the A-Class & F18, we depend on small local builders mostly investing in Classes that do not have the Laser or Opti numbers to recover investment or have an easy going business.

Both Polish sailors, Jakub Surowiec & Jacek Noetzel also riding Bryt sails, another local builder for a 100% Polska win.

Below report sent by Argie sailor living in the US, Axel Issel on the Open fleet:

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Europeans 2026 Open Fleet Report

This regatta was truly one of the best I’ve ever been to, if not the best!

We spent nine days sailing non-stop (foiling!) in perfect conditions, and thankfully, the last day (the 10th) was canceled because of a whopping +23 knots of wind. This gave us time to de-rig and load the container, and we even got to chill a bit. Exausted every day!

Besides the perfect non-stop foiling and sailing every day, the people were the real highlight. The Spanish team was incredibly friendly and funny, always joking around and sailing extremely hard. We also had the Polish guys, Italians, Vlad the crazy Czech, and even Germans. Robin and Mischa were great and friendly!

The food was on another level. Every day, we had beer and paella after racing, and the event dinner was at one of the best local restaurants. There were no extra fees for drinks or dinner. Most people were surprised that there was no extra charge for either, wine, beer and champagne included! Food quality was bar none in and aout of the regatta at very reasonably prices.

This regatta was the best value ever!

The racing level improved significantly from Punta Ala. The Spanish, Polish, and Czech sailors have been sailing and training with Kuba frequently, and it really paid off! They were sailing at high speeds with almost no mistakes in all conditions, using perfect equipment, and it showed in the results.

We had: 36 foilers vs. 38 classics that actually sailed.

The fleet was perfectly split. The top four were racing alone: Kuba, Lamberto, the new Swedish kid Emil Jarudd, and Marco Anesi, usually finishing half a mile or more ahead of the fifth place. Then, there was a very compact pack with many lead changes and close racing among the next 10-15 guys. The rest were mostly lapped.

The racing was awesome. The GP finish was perfect. Slower sailors didn’t get extremely tired on a third lap that usually had no position changes. Races finished in 15-20 minutes from last to firsts.

The WW Gate worked great, but the marks were too close for me; It can improve.

It was impressive to see the new Swedish Nacra 17 Olympic sailor, who, with maybe 20 days of actual acat sailing, was fighting for the lead. (The race he was 29th in was because he did four laps instead of three!)
He was offering the boat for sale before racing, after racing he said no chance to sell the acat and was talking to his nacra mates to join the class, he was impressed by the level, people and camaraderie. We need more like him.

Best value regatta by far!
Boarding plane now to go home. See u soon.

Axel Issel ARG 500

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Final Results: Click images for full size, source here