14 Australian boats made the trip over to Lake Garda for the 2024 World Championships.  The turquoise lake surrounded by sheer cliffs that form the Italian alps was a bucket list venue that many wanted to tick off and it was a chance for teams to catch up with old friends as most Australians missed the 2022 Worlds due to Covid restrictions.  

Sailing in the northern part of the lake out of Circolo Vela Torbole, Torbole has become an international centre of windsurfing and sailing as a 15-20knot breeze (known locally as the Ora) comes in like clockwork everyday around 1pm.  A strong 70 boat fleet took part in the championships and the narrow racetrack kept the fleet tightly bunched. 

The sailing lived up to the hype, fresh flat water made for great sailing conditions, the funnel shape of the lake with cliffs on either side created some interesting wind patterns with the right hand side of the course having stronger breezes the closer you got to the cliff face and the breeze would curve along the shore on both sides creating many passing opportunities. 

Racing was usually a battle out to the right hand side hoping to make gains from the fresher breeze upwind, downwind was much more open with passing lanes everywhere, the pressure bands and land affect created widely different angles; if you were able to nail a line you could sail buoy to buoy in one gybe picking up 10 boats in the process. 

Mark and James on Sticky Fingers continued their form from the previous 2 Australian Championships and sailed consistently to claim 3rd overall.  Dave Bramley and Matt Hanrahan on the Joker overcame some early breakages prior to the regatta sailed fast all regatta and claimed an impressive 6th overall.  The big fleet racing prowess of Lindsay Irwin and Andrew Perry on Ronstan/Irwin Sails saw them into 9th overall.   

Anthony Anderson and Daniel Vaughan still getting to know the new B6 Delta III had a career highlight in 11th all the more impressive when Anthony was nursing a fractured rib from a Teams Racing incident.  Special note to Sam Rose and Jono Everett on Ventura in their first World Championships finished 29th and took the Junior World Championship with a combined age under 60 years of age. 

 Not much could be done about the Brits Andy Shaw and Rob Struckett who sailed a dominant championship claiming first with a day to spare.  Thanks to Harvey for organising such an amazing event and Circolo Vela Torbole for the welcome hospitality and wonderful racing.

Full result here

photos © Annamaria Ramy