Blu Moon Claims European Title With A Race To Sail
It's Blu Moon (Boat of the Day thanks to 11-1-1) who wins the Magic Marine Melges 24 European Championship, an event organized by the Royal Yacht Club Hollandia in collaboration with the International Melges 24 Class Association, with a day to spare.
Thanks to five firsts and two second places out of a total of eleven races, Flavio Favini's crew won the continental title with a race to spare before the conclusion of the championship, imposing a gap of thirty seven points on its immediate opponents. Numbers that tell of the overwhelming superiority of the Italian-Swiss team, former World Champion in Key West 2001 and European Champion in Neustadt 2007.
"It's been a perfect week, during which everything for us was quite perfect: we made fewer mistakes than our opponents and we could count on perfect tactical calls and very impressive performance." - said Flavio Favini once on the ground - "We are very happy because for several seasons we chased an important result and after some second and third places we wanted to get back on the top step of the podium. Now we await for the San Francisco Worlds, where we will find the best of the U.S. fleet and some of the strongest Australian teams."
If the fight for the victory in the Open division is closed, the same can not be said for second and third place: which will only be determined at the conclusion of the last race, scheduled for tomorrow morning.
At present second and third places are occupied respectively by two-time Olympian Czech Martin Trcka on the helm of ICZ (3-29-12) and Audi Ultra (4-14-5) by Riccardo Simoneschi. Separated by just one point, the two teams will guard against possible attack by Peter Saraskin, helmsman of Estonia Zuxu (3-7-10).
Following today's result Giogi (6-20-38) and Altea (2-2-52) have lost the chance to be on the podium: they are stuck in fifth and sixth position, after breathing the thin air of high ranking.
As we said before, tomorrow will be crucial, especially with regard to the award of the Corinthian title which has a dedicated ranking. The struggle for success involves the locals of Team Kesbeke/Sika (1-2-2 among the Corinthian) and Estonians Lenny (2-1-18). Just today, Ronald Veraar's crew was able to overtake that of Tonu Toniste, as the leader from the first race. Separated by just four points, the two teams have a fairly comfortable margin on Rock City (6-8-4) of Tiit Vihul.
The Magic Marine Melges 24 European Championship will conclude tomorrow with the last race and with the prize giving. According to weather reports the wind will be lighter than today (6-7 knots from west-sudwest). Live updates are available onFacebook and Twitter. Daily reports, results and pictures will be published onwww.melges24.com and on the Event Website, while video contents will be published on the Melges 24 YouTube channel.