Light Airs And A Late Finish On Day One Of Volvo Cup Two In Punta Ala

After strong winds overnight day one of the second Melges 24 Italian Volvo Cup event in Punta Ala dawned wet, miserable and windless.  It wasn't until 3pm that the race committee was able to send the 57 Melges 24s from ten nations out to the race course for two races in what proved to be extremely light and testing conditions.

The light airs made for a snakes and ladders sailing session and there are a lot of tired sailors still making their way back to the harbour as we write this report at 7pm.  Although the Italian crews were expected to dominate it was actually Estonia Olympic 470 Bronze Medallist Tonu Toniste of Estonia sailing EST790 Lenny who got the better of today's tricky conditions to win both races and take the overall lead in the competition.  Behind him the fleet struggled for consistency as can be seen from the provisional individual race top five results below:-

1st race
EST 790 Lenny - Toniste
ITA 718 Saeta - Giovannini
ITA 727 Pilot Italia - Bolzan/Catalonga
ITA 735 Altea - Racchelli
SUI 578 Music55 - Hueber/Boy

2nd race
EST 790 Lenny - Toniste
NOR 554 - Jahre
GER 731 .Men's secret business - Houdek
SUI 599 Poizon Rouge - Monnard
SUI 782 Blue Moon - Favini/Rossini

We hope to have a more detailed report of the racing for you later and full results should be posted HERE shortly, but in the meantime the very provisional top five results are:-

EST 790 Lenny - Toniste
ITA 727 Pilot Italia - Bolzan/Catalogna
ITA 718 Saeta - Giovannini
SUI 599 Poizon Rouge - Monnard
SUI 578 Music55 - Hueber/Boy