The Mistral winds arrived in Cagliari today at the 2009 Italian Melges 24 Open Championship and brought with it some truly spectacular sailing conditions for the 35 strong fleet competing in the latest Volvo Cup event.
As usual Volvo Cup photographer Pierrick Contin has been hard at work out on the race course on the opening day of the Italian Open Championship and Volvo Cup in Cagliari so go check out his great GALLERY of images.
In Cagliari, in the far south of the beautiful island of Sardinia, Italy, the Melges 24 teams are leaving the dock this morning ready to do battle for the 2009 Italian Open Championship and event four in the 2009 Volvo Cup Series.
It seemsthat one of the major trends in sailing these days is to bring it closer and closer to land, and that is exactly what Autonet Mobile will be doing at the 2009 U.S. Melges 24 National Championship beginning tomorrow, Friday June 12.
The first day of racing at the 2009 Melges 24 Italian Open Championship, the fourth event in the 2009 Volvo Cup Series, brought the 35 competing crews three fantastic races in a steady 10-12 knot southerly wind.
On the eve of the Italian Open Championship in Cagliari, Sardinia, Zerogradinord's Mauro Melandri spoke to Melges 24 World Champion and all round sailing legend Jonathan McKee about his new role as tactician aboard reigning Melges 24 World Champion Uka Uka, Uka Uka's winter training and sail develop
With just two days to go until the start of the 2009 Italian Melges 24 Open Championship in Cagliari, Sardinia- event number 4 in the Volvo Cup series - Zerogradinord's Maruo Melandriinterviews former Melges 24 World Champion Sebastien Col, now sailing as tactician aboard Franco Rossini's Blu Moon.
The North Sea Regatta (www.nsr.nl) played host to the first Melges 24 event in the Netherlands. Some great sailors from other classes were invited to sail on one of the two demo boats of Hein Ruyten.
27 boats signed in for the German Open 2009 - finally 23 boats showed up at the starting line. The German Open were sailed in Prien at Lake Chiemsee from 29 May to 1 Juneand the event was hosted by Chiemsee Yacht Club (www.cyc-prien.de).
For the first time ever the Melges24 class sailed an Austrian Open. The Class association set up earlier this year prepared the event as good as possible in Cooperation with "Sailing Club Kammersee" (www.sck.at) at Lake Attersee from 22-24 May.
