Santi Lange in Barcolana

Gold medalist, American Cup racer, ocean sailor, innovation enthusiast: 3 days earlier than scheduled, the Nacra 17 gold medallist at the Rio Olympics Santi Lange arrived in Barcolana today. Endorsing the 69F foiling project in Trieste, this afternoon the great Argentinian sailor met the members of the sailing academies and the sailing enthusiasts of Società Triestina della Vela for a wide-ranging question time, about his Olympic sailing experience, the future of the American Cup and foiling, and about the next Olympic games. Weather permitting, Lange will be aboard the 69F tomorrow at dawn to race Barcolana’s course and test the speed of the small foil monohull on the 13-mile course in the Gulf. “Barcolana is in my heart – said Lange today – I saw hundreds of these pictures shot from above, with two thousand boats and Trieste’s lighthouse. I wish I could stay here all week and race the regatta on Sunday, but I have to go back to Argentina. Now that I’m back in Trieste, many years after I arrived here from England sailing in the Europa class, I promise I’ll be back as soon as possible.” Lange was often in Trieste forty years ago, when he was training with the Europa class and studying Naval Architecture at the University of Southampton. Since then, Lange has won the Olympics, participated in the American Cup and in round-the-world sailing tours, won in many open sea sailing categories: “Sailing has always been great fun to me – said the great champion – everyone who loves and respects the sea is part of a big family.” Lange told us about foiling and its future developments: “foiling is basically a new technology that will become even more simple and popular, as it happened in the past with kitesurfs and snowboards in skiing: we only need time to improve the learning curve, it’s a great chance to live a new experience, at any age, we all need to have fun at sea, as much as possible and always, either if we are sailing just for fun or to train for the Olympics.”