IMS 50' WORLD CHAMPION FLAVIO FAVINI TELLS US WHAT BROUGHT HIM INTO THE MELGES 24 CLASS

FB – You’ve just come back from winning the IMS 50’ Worlds. It must be a big change from that to Melges 24 sailing. How are you finding it?
FF – I like the boat very much. I’ve always been sailing both big boats and little boats, I come from dinghy sailing originally as so many sailors. I really enjoy small boat sailing and I’ve been watching the Melges class from some years. My owner Franco Rossini is a friend of mine who previously owned a UFO – an Italian keel boat. We had been sailing together for a while on the UFO and decided we wanted to do some international sailing in small boats so we chose the Melges.

FB - So were there many other classes you looked at when you made the choice?
FF – No at the moment I don’t think there is anything else. I had been sailing J24s a lot, but the class is no longer very competitive and I think that the same level of competition that was in the J24 is now in the Melges 24, which is also a much better boat.

FB – Who do you have on your sailing team in addition to your owner Franco Rossini?
FF – I have Tiziano Nava as tactician who is a very good sailor and has done the America’s Cup, then Alberto Prestinoni who has been sailing with me for many years and Serena Cima who is a very good sailor as well. We are a team of friends and so we have a very good team.

FB – How long have you been sailing the boat together?
FF – Very little. We first sailed the boat at a regatta here in Torbole last November, then we did the Primo Cup in Monte Carlo, the SNIM regatta and the Torbole Melges Week in May. Since May we haven’t been sailing on the Melges at all. It is difficult because we have to race against people who are sailing Melges all the time. It’s a boat in which you have to spend a lot of hours practising. I’m sailing a lot of course but it’s on different boats so it’s not the same thing.

FB – And who do you think are your main competitors for the championship this week?
FF – The French for sure. Laurent Pages is very good, they are well trained and they look very confident with the boat. Then I know Jamie Lee from England is good and there is also Silvio Santoni who is especially good when he is sailing in Torbole and I think will be one of the guys who will do very well here. Of course Alba Batzill is a great champion and one to watch. After that I don’t know all of the other guys, there are a couple of guys in front of me I’ve just never met before because I’m a newcomer to the class.

FB – Have you found the sailing here in Torbole very challenging?
FF – Well I went up the left side both times on the first beat yesterday and the leader came out from the right side! I must say I didn’t understand this very much but we are very happy with our results. We got a 4th and a 5th so we are very happy at the moment.

FB – Will you be coming to the Worlds in Ft Lauderdale in November?
FF – Yes that’s definitely the plan.

FB – Thank you Flavio for speaking to us, and good luck for the rest of this week.king to us Rob. We’ll leave you to go off and break the news of your win in the first race to the rest of the crew.