Melges 24 European Sailing Series 2021 - Altea wins in Malcesine and is trailed on the podium by White Room and Arkanoé by Montura

June 27, 2021 - Malcesine, Italy - Peler again, Altea again (today 1-8): the first Act of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series 2021 and Act 3 of the Italian Melges24Tour, organized by the Fraglia Vela Malcesine in collaboration with the Italian Melges 24 Class Association and International Melges 24 Class Association, goes in the archives with completion of the program foreseen by the Notice of Race and a solid winner Altea, that only a few weeks ago, in Talamone, had been crowned Italian Champion of the Melges 24 Class.

In Malcesine, for Andrea Racchelli's crew it all seemed easy: six bullets out of nine races and fifteen points margin on the reigning champions of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series, German White Room of Michael Tarabochia with Luis Tarabochia at the helm (2-10), that make a great job by capitalizing the excellent results scored on the opening day and confirmed themselves as second overall and winner of the Corinthian division, in front of an always fighting Italian Arkanoé by Montura of Sergio Caramel (3-6), by now consolidated reality of this competitive one-design class.

“We really enjoyed ourselves: Malcesine offered excellent conditions and the regattas were exciting and difficult, both physically and tactically. We are celebrating a clear victory, but even more we are celebrating the feeling of having found again many friends and having returned to cross between the buoys of what we believe to be the unique one-design class,” explained Andrea Racchelli on the sidelines of the award ceremony.

“Lake Garda is always a great place to sail,” said Luis Tarabochia, the helmsman of White Room. “The racing was great and also the wind conditions both in the morning and afternoon. We didn’t expect to succeed so well since we haven’t been sailing for seven months, but we were really motivated to take part the Garda event and all was working out just really fine! We are very happy and are already looking forward to the next events in Riva del Garda!”

Satisfaction also for the guys of Arkanoé by Montura, who appeared capable of excellent performance cues despite some change in the crew: "Returning to the podium of an event of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series is particularly satisfying, especially at the beginning of a season that will have in the September European Championship its main event: we are very happy with our speed and we have identified some aspects on which to work in order to further improve our performance," said Sergio Caramel.

Today’s races, held with some fresh Peler, did not cause particular shuffle in the general classification: Hungarian Seven_Five_Nine (12-2) by Akos Csolto and Italian Melgina (13-1) by Paolo Brescia, winner of the final round, respectively finished fourth and third of the Corinthians behind Arkanoé by Montura; and Melgina fifth overall, positions they already occupied after Day 2. 

Top 6 of the Event 1 of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series 2021:

1. ALTEA ITA722 - 13 p
Andrea RACCHELLI, Gaudenzio BONINI, Alberto VERNA, Stefano LAGI, Carmen SEPE 

2. WHITE ROOM GER677 (C) - 28 p
Luis TARABOCHIA, Marco TARABOCHIA, Michael TARABOCHIA, Sebastian BÜHLER, Marvin FRISCH

3. ARKANOE BY MONTURA ITA809 (C) - 30 p 
Sergio CARAMEL, Filippo ORVIETO, Federico GOMIERO, Michele MEOTTO, Michele BONETTI

4. SEVEN_FIVE_NINE HUN759 (C) - 43 p
Ákos CSOLTÓ, Balázs TOMAI, Botond WEÖRES, Takácsy LEVENTE

5. MELGINA ITA693 - 48 p 
Paolo BRESCIA, Matteo CAPURRO, Matteo PUPPO, Jas FARNETI, Nicolas STARC

6. LENNY EST790 (C) - 48 p 
Tõnu TÕNISTE, Toomas TÕNISTE, Maiki SAARING, Tammo OTSASOO, Henri TAUTS

The Melges 24 class is now preparing to move further north, more precisely to Riva del Garda where, on the last weekend of July, the second stage of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series is scheduled.

Full results
Event website
Photo gallery by IM24CA/Zerogradinord