The 2020 Nacra 15 World Championship will be held in Geneva, Switzerland. International event gathering the best young sailors in the world, it will be the last event before the World Sailing Youth Championship. But why Geneva has been chosen? How the Nacra 15 class has been evolving the past few years? Take the time to discover the catamaran culture in Switzerland, an uncontested sailing nation.
From Saturday, 17th of October to Friday, 23rd of October 2020, Geneva will host the Nacra 15 World Championship. More than 60 teams from all around the world are expected and two clubs will collectively organize the event: the Société Nautique de Genève and the Yacht Club de Genève. The management will be done by the Swiss catamaran association, RACES.CH, insuring the best event possible.
THE BOAT : NACRA 15, A PATH TO OLYMPIC SAILING
In 2015, Nacra Sailing has developed a new boat dedicated to young sailors: the Nacra 15. A few months later, World Sailing, the international sailing association, chose the boat as the official youth catamaran. It's the beginning of a nice success story !
With a length of 4.70 m, a mast of 8.10m and a weight of 145kg, the Nacra 15 is now used in many countries and a lot of international events are now organized all over the world. It is a great opportunity for young sailors to race on a catamaran that is so close from an Olympic boat, the Nacra 17.
A CONSISTENT DEVELOPMENT IN SWITZERLAND
Even though Switzerland has no access to open seas, it has always been a great sailing country with talented sailors. The peak of interest for sailing was certainly when Alinghi took back the America's Cup in Europe for two editions, in 2003 and 2007.
But catamaran sailing, and especially young formation, has always been quite less developed, compared to our French neighbor. The arrival of the Nacra 15 made a big difference. In 2016, Max Wallenberg, Optimist World Champion, took the 7th place at the Youth Sailing World Championship, which raised the interest. One year of training and regattas later, Max and his crew Amanda, took the 1st place at the same event.
This title has boosted even more the interest for the boat in Switzerland and a new team started sailing Nacra 15 : Arnaud Grange & Marie van der Klink. They also achieved many Top 10 results at international events. But no structure was really existing in their home waters, in Switzerland. Thanks to the support of the Okyalys Youth Project & the Bertarelli Foundation, as well as of the Nacra dealer, H2O Sensations, 10 Swiss clubs were able to buy Nacra 15 and start a real formation on this support. SUI Sailing also started to organize Nacra 15 training camps in the scope of their Talent Pool selection.
With these formation conditions being set, the gap with the other countries was quickly shut. In 2019, 18 Swiss boats were competing at the Swiss Championship, allowing the Swiss fleet to the improve all together. Thanks to all these quick developments around catamaran, Switzerland was chosen to host the 2020 Nacra 15 European Championship.
GENEVA: A NICE SAILING PLACE
Many would say that Geneva is not a good place to sail, but as everywhere, you have to find the good moment to come, and autumn is one of them. The two major winds that can build up in Geneva is a northern breeze and a southwestern wind. But be careful, wind can be tricky here with all the mountains around and tactics will play an important role.
The venue and the atmosphere will also be very nice and Swiss people know to host sailing events! This event will last in your memory, you can be sure about that !