Mixed Fortunes For First Volvo Cup Event in Alassio

From The Italian Class - We all love sailing our Melges 24 witha good breeze, surfing down the waves, with the sun shining. But regttas can turn out to be another story sometimes. They can include endless waiting, hanging around between the dock and the bar. Fortunately, Italian coffee is good, and we had plenty of room and free beer in Casa Alassio. But the sun and the wind just didn't show up in the adequate amounts this weekend.

We managed to get one race completed on friday, no races on saturday, and two races on sunday. All of it with extremely light air. But hey, there were 51 Melges 24 at the firsta regatta of the season, with 8 boats from France, UK, Germany Switzerland and Monaco, and 19 Corinthians! Sounds good!

Friday's regatta was won by Francois Brenac, helming Partner&Partners. Here's what he told us: "We are here to get ready for the Hyeres Worlds, of course. We will be racing some regattas in France as well, where the fleet is usually around 30 boats. However with the numbers and quality level of the crews racing the Volvo Cup, we believe this is a real investment for our team. This is my first year on the Melges 24 and, as everyone else, I'm really enjoying it!". Right behind him were Stuart Rix on team Gill and Riccardo Simoneschi with his tactician Branko Brcin, the only two "survivors" of a renewed crew. The change came by gradually, after last year's Volvo Cup, and it did not affect their results at all, indeed. Fourth place was for one of the strongest new teams: Roberto Beneamati and Sandro Montefusco (just to remind you: olympic sailors in Star and 470 class respectively, and Louis Vuitton Cup winner on Luna Rossa for Sandro) on GeBL.

Saturday we just waited, the most frequent words heard were "At least, it's not raining.."

On Sunday, as soon as a very light breeze came in, the boats were on the water. In race two, Simoneschi took the lead, followed by one of our Corinthian teams, Maga, and GeBL again. In the third and last race, the starting line resembled a battlegroung. They seemed to be racing 420s or Lasers, not 24 feet boats. Some collisions, a few boats called OCS, and in the end, it's Montefusco winning. Second place and a really outstanding race for a young corinthian crew, Alessio Muciaccia on Chimera. They touched a mark, took a penalty, and still managed to keep calm and keep their boat running in 4-5 knots of breeze till the end. Third place was for Nicolo' Saidelli, who usually races corinthian as well, but this time has decided to take onboard the Ivaldi brothers, as tailer and tactitian. FULL RESULTS

In the end, it's an international podium, with ITA 580 GEBL, FRA 571 Partner&Partners and GBR406 Team Barbarians. First Corinthian crew Chimera: Alessio Muciaccia, owner and helmsman, will be hosting the next Volvo Cup in his home club and home town, Bari, May 11th-13 th.

See you all there!

Nataša Avlijaš
Classe Italiana Melges24
Segreteria
Via Guido d'Arezzo 5, 00198 Roma
tel +39 347 7576553
fax +39 06 85831883