Planing at over 24 knots in the Bora on the L30 One Design
The footage dates back a few years, to before the official launch of the L30 One Design, which from tomorrow will be racing in its World Championship in Trieste. We are off the Slovenian coast on a day of Bora, with Rodion Luka himself at the helm, the sailor who conceived the boat.
The strong north-easterly wind so typical of the Adriatic provides the perfect opportunity to see the L30 in demanding conditions, driven hard by the very man who wanted and developed it. Light, fast and responsive, the boat shows its true racing character when the breeze is up.
Ukrainian sailor Rodion Luka won the silver medal in the 49er at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games with Georgiy Leonchuk and became World Champion in the same class in 2005. The L30 grew out of his experience in high-performance sailing and took shape with naval architect Andrej Justin, who had already designed a number of performance yachts, the best known being the RC44 one-design created for Russell Coutts.
The L30 was never conceived solely for windward/leeward racing. The class also competes in coastal and offshore events, both fully crewed and double-handed, a mix of formats that underlines the versatility of the design.
From tomorrow the L30 fleet will be in action in Trieste, where Yacht Club Adriaco will host the L30 World Championship from 7 to 12 September, with windward/leeward racing, followed by the L30 Offshore Double Handed World Championship. The programme continues on 26 and 27 September with Sailing Week, while on 11 October the class will line up for the Barcolana.
A good reason to look back at these spectacular images from the early days of the L30.
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