New Hungarian Team Dominate First Swiss Event of '08

The first race in Switzerland in 2008 has been sailed on the weekend 12/13 April 2008 at Kreuzlingen. 10 Melges 24 participated in the UBS-Sportboat-Cup 2008 organized by "Segler-Vereinigung-Kreuzlingen". In total 36 sportboats were on the starting line and tried to compete with Melges 24.

6 races were sailed - 4 of them on Saturday in winds up to 12 knots, 2 of them on Sunday in lighter winds. The race committee did a great job supported by Peter Fritschi, normally crew on SUI 684 and by the sponsors UBS and Sonnenkönig (owned by Armin Schmid).

The Melges 24 class was dominated by HUN 728 “Proximo” with Arpad Litkey on the helm winning all 4 races on Saturday and a 2nd and a 3rd on Sunday. Second place was taken by the local crew on SUI 684 “Sonnenkönig” helmed by Stefan Stäheli – third place went to GER 640 “Ka Nalu Nui” owned and helmed by Günter Tzeschlock, secretary of the Swiss Class.

It was no surprise that the Melges 24 could win the Overall Ranking for Sportboats under ORC-handicap but 4th, 7th and 9th place went to Melges 24 as well. The now 15 year old design proved again to be the leading sportboat in the world.

The social events are important as well – Friday night the Melges 24 sailors met in a nice restaurant with its own brewery, Saturday night the organizers offered a diner to all sailors. All of us had a lot of fun.

Segler-Vereinigung-Kreuzlingen proved to be a well organized team and we look forward to a successful “1st Melges 24 Swiss Open” on 20.-22. June 2008. More information about this event is available from WWW.SWISS.MELGES24.DE.