Fons’ visit to Punta Ala
From June 7th till 9th I visited, together with my wife Janny, Punta Ala, Italy: the Finn World Master’s venue for 2011.
In order to avoid misunderstandings and thoughts about writing errors: the town nearby is called Punta Ala (two words) but our sailing venue is Camping Resort PuntAla (one word and one A in the middle).
This is a huge luxury **** family camping in the south point of Tuscany, in a beautiful landscape. This camping is very child friendly, with playgrounds and special activities for children. From 22.00 until 08.00 am there is complete silence. You can have a look at www.campingpuntala.it
On this camping resort you can rent several types of accommodation like mobile homes and bungalows and there is a large amount of places for tents and motor homes. These places have to be paid for, but they are very nice between the pine trees and for the motor homes (if chosen for) with electricity, water connection and waste water sewer.
The
camping has a beautiful beach where the Finns will be parked and where
our families can stay when we’re out for sailing.
Beach chairs and sun screens are for rent and the restaurant/bar is
nearby. Help from each other (and from volunteers, as discussed with
the organizing committee members) will be needed at launching or
returning to the beach after sailing.
There are, on the camping site, two restaurants: one close to the beach and one close to the entrance, together with a small supermarket and a bike rental office.
The restaurant near the beach has a separate bar. The food in this restaurant is very good and at the bar you can have drinks, but also a (Italian) breakfast. The other restaurant is more or less a family restaurant where also pizzas are being served.
Off the coast lies the island of Elba and sometimes you can see it.
At about 6 kilometer to the South lies Punta Ala, with several luxury hotels, apartments and a large marina.
At about 15 km to the North lies Follonica. This is a bigger place with lots of (cheaper) hotels and nice shops and restaurants. Follonica also has a railway station, so those who fly to Pisa can take the train to Follonica, like we did. (See www.ferroviedellostato.it).
Follonica is close to Scarlino where the Finn Europeans were held in 2008 in the marina of Puntone, so maybe some younger Masters will recognize it. The sailing water is almost the same as in Punta Ala.
When I speak about the sailing water: I was there in exactly the same period as we will be in 2011 and the sailing conditions during my stay were perfect. Every day, at the end of the morning, the breeze increased till around 12 – 16 knots. So perfect conditions for all Finn Masters. No big waves, but this can change a bit with the wind direction. But I was told that there will be hardly real big waves.
The sailing club “Circolo Velico Cala Civette”, which is part of the camping resort, has organized some big sailing events in the last few years as you can see on this website under the button “Masters 2011”, so they have experience with bigger fleets.
I told the people there that we can expect over 250 and, maybe, up to 300 competitors in 2011, because I think that this venue will be popular for lots of us. While discussing the courses with the responsible people we decided to sail on two race courses in case there will be between 250 and 300 competitors and we will be divided into three groups.
We decided that the "FWM 2011" event website will be on-line on January 1st, 2011 at the latest. The Notice of Race will then be published as soon as possible, showing how to enter and pay, as decided in the Annual Masters Meeting in Split. (Read the minutes under the button Masters 2010/Annual Meeting)
On the event website you will also find information about accommodations on the camping, in case you did not have a look at www.campingpuntala.it earlier. Prices of the accommodations are the lowest when you are booking early. The later you book, the higher they are. Complete information about the 2011 rates will be published on the event website a.s.a.p. after Jan. 1st.
We had a few very nice days in Camping PuntAla and I had pleasant and constructive discussions about the FWM “Guidelines” with the Secretary of the sailing club “Circolo Velico Cala Civette”: Maria Luisa Cionini, the Marketing manager of the camping: Roberto Vergottini and the owner of the camping resort: Thomas Daddi, who is a catamaran sailor on a Hobie Tiger. We discussed and checked all items of the Guidelines.
We also met our Finn Master friend Pietro Piram from Livorno and his wife Anna. Pietro joined us in the last meeting about the Guidelines and took part in the last discussions.
So far my experiences of Punta Ala and I am sure we can look forward to another great Finn World Masters Championship in 2011.
I wish you good sailing during the rest of 2010 and hope to meet you all in Punta Ala from June 10th till 17th, 2011.
Fons van Gent
President Masters' Fleet
Appartments in Punta Ala Restaurant / Bar Hotels in Follonica
More pictures are available on Picasa