News Updates From the Italian Class

From Italian Class Secretary Nastasa Avlijas - As far as the Italian class goes, the news is the great weekend we had for the Coppa Italia, with the Volvo prizegiving and the Class party on 8th December. It all started on Friday, with 23 boats, strong winds and a storm coming up! The commitee managed to get one race done, then everyone headed back to the marina under the rain and the gusts. That night we had the Volvo 2006 prizegiving party for the Melges 24 class. Lots of prizes: first ten overall and first five corithians. But the biggest "prize" for us organizers, the nicest surprise, was seeing the Team Barbarians guys with their wifes and girlfriends showing up "just for the beers" :-) :-) They flew down not for sailing but just for the joy of spending some time with us!

The other good news is that Volvo has confirmed the sponsorship for our events until 2008, Porto Cervo worlds included.

The event then continued with a day of sun and extremely light winds, and again only one race was held. After all, there was one more night of partying and dancing coming up. Saturday was the Italian Melges 24 class world championship title celebration night. The Alassio municipality awarded a recognition for outstanding sports results to the Bete crew, and they also signed a tile to be put on the famous Alassio "Muretto", a wall in the city center. We the continued with a gift to all the Italian Melges 24 owners from Devoti Sailing, and a dvd of all the 2006 events, worlds included, of all the Sailing Channel episodes, offered by the Italian class and Mediavip, the agency that takes care of our sponsorship and tv-media relations. Last but not least, Uk Halsey offered prizes to the crews, not the owners this time: t-shirts, polo shirts and belts. Once all were happy and fed at the buffet, the dancing started, and went on 'till late night.

Finally, on sunday, we had the sun and the wind at the same time and the race committee showed unprecedented efficiency: three races, one right after the other. Some excellent sailing, and our photographer James R. Taylor smiling and shooting again.
The results, as well as the photos, are on WWW.MELGES24.IT