The 18ft Skiff is one of our favourite classes to shoot, and after we had so much fun covering the fleet racing in Lake Garda last year, We jumped at the opportunity to come back again this year to film the 2019 18ft Skiff European Championship held at Circolo Vela Arco at the North end of Lake Garda.
This year we decided to do something a little differently and we are very excited about it! We think that these boats, these sailors and this location are the perfect recipe for something bigger than your average sailing highlights video. So we have decided to produce our own short film documentary that brings this event to life!
We are still in the process of making it, so we ask that you stay tuned for it, but it is certainly coming together! We want to get it right, after all!
In the meantime, we have uploaded all our still images from the regatta and we invite you to take a look at them here! Full resolution versions of these images are available for purchase, simply send us an email with the file name of the images you wish to purchase!
A huge congratulations must go to the team of ASKO, with James Dorron, Harry Bethwaite and Trent Barnabas, who sailed very well during the varied wind conditions of the whole event to come away as the overall winners of the championship! They were closely followed by Noakes (Sean Langman) and The Kitchen Maker (Jordan Girdis).
However the overall EUROPEAN Champion title goes to the Be Light! team from Hungary made up of Ujhelyi-Gáspár Miklos, Botond Nemeth and Zsombor Szépfy. These legends have been sailing in the 18ft Skiff class for many years now, and last won this event in 2016 where they took the overall victory as well.
The weather conditions were quite varied during the event, with the standard “Garda breeze” system playing ‘hard-to-get’ which saw a number of days where the fleet was split between using the big rig and little rig. This meant it became quite tactical and there were moments during the fleet where every team was leading the fleet at one point or another!
It was fantastic to see how the fleet in Europe is growing! There are now 18ft Skiff teams in almost every country of Europe, including Hungary, The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Ukraine and there has always been a strong fleet representing GBR! The fleet level has been improving constantly as everyone in the fleet are super friendly and always willing help out newcomers and swap advice or equipment. It truly is a special group of people.
Should anyone be interested in joining the fleet, either as a crew member on an existing team, or you have a team and are looking for a boat, don’t hesitate to reach out and contact Hartas Productions where we will put you in touch with the right people!
In the meantime, if you wish to help us with our documentary of this event, please send us an email!
View all our images from event below! If you wish to purchase any, just make a note of the file name and send us an email!