Italian clean sweep

Fiona Brown reports from the final day at the Melges 24 European Championship at Rolex Baltic Week

The 2007 Melges 24 European Championship, run as part of Rolex Baltic Week in Neustadt, Germany, came to a spectacular finish with one light airs race for the 74 competitors from 14 nations. The day had started with fog and a long postponement, but eventually the sun broke through, a light sea breeze filled in and racing got underway mid-afternoon.

With just one race possible before the 1600 starting time limit, overnight leader Flavio Favini, sailing Franco Rossini’s Blu Moon from Switzerland, knew that only Italy’s Sandro Montesfusco, helming Cesar Bressan’s Airis, could beat him. Favini’s worst result was a tenth place and Montefusco was 6.8 points behind. With the black flag in operation, Favini took a cautious approach, keeping out of trouble in the middle of the start line with Montefusco a few boats to weather of him. Montesfusco not only had to worry about trying to get seven boats between him and Favini, but he also had to keep an eye on fellow Italian Lorenzo Bressani, sailing Uka Uka, who was just 4.2 points behind him.

On the first beat the fledgling sea breeze began to break down going left and dropping. At the first mark Italy’s Furio Patrizio Monaco, sailing Billo Baccani, led from Bressani with Montesfusco third. Britain’s John Gimson, helming Eamon O’Nolan’s Sailing Unlimited, slotted into fourth with Favini safely fifth and concentrating on covering Montefusco. The race committee was signalling a change of course, partly to allow for the shift but also to reduce the leg length to ensure the race could be safely completed despite the lightening winds.

By the bottom of the run Bressani had the lead with Monaco second, Favini third and Montefusco fourth. With the wind becoming increasingly unstable the race committee made the wise decision to shorten at the end of the second beat and with Favini now more or less safe, the battle was on for second place. As the boats came together again in the closing stage Monaco had slipped back but Montesfusco’s decision to keep to the right of the group had paid and he and Bressani were neck and neck. The first time they crossed tacks Bressani still had the advantage, but Montefusco had the better speed and as they came together again he took control for the approach to the line. Just centimetres apart on the finish the race went to Montefusco with Bressani second, Favini third and Monaco fourth.

So it’s an (almost) all Italian podium line-up as the 2007 Melges 24 European Championship goes to Italy's Flavio Favini and his team of owner Franco Rossini from Switzerland, tactician Tiziano Nava, Stefano Rizzi and Lavinia Stiz, aboard Blu Moon who receive the Giorgio Zuccoli Trophy. Second place went to Sandro Montefusco with owner Cesare Bresann, tactician Roberto Benamati, Ines Monefusco and Julia Mazzotii aboard Airis. Lorenzo Bressani sailing Uka Uka with tactician Francesco Bruni, Federico Michetti, Lorenzo Santini and Francesca Prina take third place overall. Fourth place went to Luca Valerio, sailing Maurizio Abba’s Alina Helly-Hansen, with Frenchman Christoph Barrue, sailing Denis Enfante’s Euro-Voiles, finally breaking the Italian's run in fifth place.

Speaking after sailing Flavio Favini said: “It’s great to be back in the Melges 24 class after a couple of years [he was helmsman for Mascalzone Latino]. We were not expecting to be able to win the Europeans having just come back, but I must say that my crew never stopped and they did a great job. Basically I just stepped back on the boat and everything was much better than when I left. Franco, Tiziano and the guys moved on a lot in this two years with Chris Rast who took my place and I stepped on a boat that was much more ready than when I left.

“The competition this week was tough. It was difficult sailing conditions, either very little or too much. For us probably we would have preferred some more stable winds and some more normal racing but we are very pleased to make it anyway!”

In the 30 strong Corinthian Division for the all-amateur crews, who race within the open competition but are scored separately, the winner is Tonu Toniste from Estonia sailing Lenny with his brother Toomas, Maiki Saaring, Andres Rohtla and Ants Haavel, who also finished eighth in the open division. Italy’s Mario Ziliani sailing Gullisara with Giovan Ferrari, Paolo Venturelli, Alberto Dell’Acqua and Carlo Parola are second Corinthian team and ninth overall with Sweden’s Ingemar Sundstedt, Olof Detlefsen, Oscar Egnell, Johan Lindell and Mikael Lindqvist sailing Rocad Racing Team third in the Corinthian division and 11th overall.

Despite some extremely difficult weather conditions the Race Committee of the NRV did well to succeed in running seven of the twelve possible races. “It’s been a great championship.” said American Brian Hutchinson, one of the most experience Melges 24 crews in the World who this week coached the Norwegian fleet and sailed aboard Peder Jahre’s Terra Eiendomsmegling. “The standard has been really high, the competition was tough and despite the difficult weather it’s been a great week.”

The event will close with a prize giving ceremony and party sponsored by event title sponsor Rolex where our champions will receive their prizes and be honoured by their fellow competitors and where winning owner Franco Rossini will be presented with a fabulous Rolex Submariner timepiece.

More photos on the following pages...

Results:

Pos	Sail no	Yacht	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Tot
1	SUI 521	Blu Moon	Flavio Favini	3	2	1	5	[10.00]	3	3	17
2	ITA 580	Airis	Sandro Montefusco	[14.00]	7	6	1	1	5.8	1	21.8
3	ITA 682	Uka Uka	Lorenzo Bressani	2	1	[17.00]	6	12	4	2	27
4	ITA 409	Alina - Helly Hansen	Luca Valerio	8	13	5	8	[75.00]	1	7	42
5	FRA 639	Euro- Voiles	Denis Infante	5	18	4	13	[39.00]	2	11	53
6	ITA 683	Billo Baccani	Furio Patrizio Monaco	6	[32.00]	16	22	7	5	4	60
7	EST 646	Lenny	Tönu Töniste	13	[22.00]	7	20	3	12	8	63
8	ITA 673	Gullisara	Mario Ziliani	[22.00]	15	9	19	13	11	14	81
9	GBR 435	High Maintenance	Eamonn O'Nolan	7	6	21	21	[22.00]	15.4	12	82.4
10	SWE 532	Rocad racing team	Ingemar Sundstedt	50	5	8	3	4	[75.00]	15	85
11	GBR 690	Excellent	John Pollard	4	9	[37.00]	7	32	25	9	86
12	FRA 389	Marseille big ship Quantum	Maxime Paul	35	21	3	16	2	10	[75.00]	87
13	ITA 438	Altea	Andrea Racchelli	[34.00]	10	25	14	9	6	24	88
14	GBR 654	Natural Mojo	Miles Quinton	9	19	2	28	28	7	[40.00]	93
15	NOR 554	Terra Eiendomsmegling	Peder Jahre	18	8	29	9	[75.00]	20	17	101
16	CZE 711	Pinacolade	Tomas Musil	33	24	10	23	[36.00]	14	5	109
17	EST 645	zuxu	Peter Saraskin	17	26	18	12	18	19	[41.00]	110
18	ITA 608	Mas Amantes	Roberta de Paoli	23	20	31	2	6	33	[35.00]	115
19	GER 594	Alethea	Marcus Brennecke	32	[40.00]	13	29	19	13	13	119
20	GER 537	Macs	Dietrich Scheder-Bieschin	11	12	49	[75.00]	23	9	16	120
21	ITA 528	Se Godemo	Stefano Cherin	12	36	35	11	17	22.2	[45.00]	133.2
22	FRA 644	Zig Zag 18	Samuel Henri	21	17	28	26	[37.00]	16	26	134
23	FRA 612	Encore	Cedric de Kervenoael	48	[53.00]	27	4	14	15	29	137
24	SUI 684	Sonnenkönig	Hendrik Witzmann	10	16	20	10	27	[75.00]	60	143
25	ITA 643	Bete Bossini	Nicola Celon	29	4	12	17	8	[75.00]	75	145
26	SUI 382	Zerotwo	Michael Good	20	46	22	[75.00]	11	21	27	147
27	FIN 529	Midnight Sun Sailing One	Sami Ekblad	28	37	[63.00]	30	34	17	10	156
28	FRA 261	Cotes d'Armor Perros-Guirec	Antoine Albaret	[75.00]	38	38	15	15	8	51	165
29	GBR 691	Team Barbarians	Stuart Simpson	1	3	11	[75.00]	5	75	75	170
30	GER 627	Rat Pack	Oliver Schwall	30	52	15	35	[75.00]	24	20	176
31	FRA 329	Flor direct	Alain Roig	36	11	19	[75.00]	75	30	6	177
32	FIN 434	Miinakissa IV	Sami Tamminen	19	42	[60.00]	36	41	22	19	179
33	SUI 530	Acqua	Caspar Buettner	15	58	24	[75.00]	24	26	42	189
34	SUI 578	Music55	Daniel Schroff	16	30	41	41	46	28	[75.00]	202
35	FRA 470	Cotes d'armor	Mathilde Geron	38	[50.00]	30	40	35	18	49	210
36	ITA 571	Fishdog	Augusto Viansson-Ponte	24	33	26	45	50	[75.00]	37	215
37	GER 640	Ka Nalu Nui	Günter Tzeschlock	27	44	45	27	45	[75.00]	28	216
38	GBR 527	Comfortably Numb	Simon Dobson	39	47	39	[75.00]	38	32	23	218
39	GER 543	Ferun	Lennart Briesenick-Pudenz	[64.00]	14	44	51	29	42	39	219
40	GER 224	Touring Junior	Patrick Follmann	45	23	51	[53.00]	31	36	33	219
41	SWE 508	Sitting Duck	Anders Waldner	49	35	59	32	30	[75.00]	18	223
42	SWE 395	Sting	Johan Forssman	52	45	[58.00]	25	20	40	43	225
43	DEN 454	Akticon	Soeren Ebdrup	25	43	36	38	42	41	[75.00]	225
44	EST 476	Black Pearl	Tiit Vihul	57	[65.00]	53	34	25	34	25	228
45	ITA 468	Giogi	Matteo Balestrero	47	28	[57.00]	48	33	27	48	231
46	NOR 600	Peder Nergaard	Peder Nergaard	60	48	56	18	16	[75.00]	34	232
47	ITA 355	Ue Ue	Valerio Brighenti	56	34	[75.00]	44	49	23	31	237
48	GER 582	No Woman No Cry	Albert Batzill	37	41	23	33	[75.00]	29	75	238
49	SWE 230	MissMess	Fredrik Rege	31	51	34	49	[53.00]	41	32	238
50	ITA 651	Mataran	Stefano di Properzio	51	[56.00]	14	42	51	35	47	240
51	NED 117	Tape That	Carlo Vroon	46	31	52	37	43	31	[56.00]	240
52	GBR 431	Aqua Racing	John-Christian Erricsson	59	[75.00]	55	24	21	75	21	255
53	FIN 662	Kaiser Soze	Jaakko Perimaa	44	57	46	47	40	[75.00]	22	256
54	FIN 650	Pojola Fonecta Find.	Tomi Hakola	54	29	33	50	44	[75.00]	54	264
55	NOR 374	Fua Tri	Bjoern M.Pedersen	26	49	40	39	[75.00]	39	75	268
56	SUI 336	Meister Ropes	Hansmartin Amrein	43	[68.00]	32	52	52	44	58	281
57	AUT 531	Edelweiß	Michael Schineis	40	54	42	31	[75.00]	75	53	295
58	GER 334	Acatenango	Markus Scheel	68	25	50	46	61	[75.00]	50	300
59	AUT 164	SauFaz	Alexander Kastinger	53	[70.00]	62	56	47	37	46	301
60	GBR 557	GBR557	David Rowen	[67.00]	55	43	57	55	38	57	305
61	GER 377	Offset	Jürgen Waschek	63	60	47	61	56	[75.00]	36	323
62	SWE 172	Team Jacuzzi	Torsten Bergh	42	[71.00]	67	63	59	43	55	329
63	GER 713	Black Label	Johannes Kaske	73	27	68	43	48	[75.00]	75	334
64	GER 586	Deepblue	Frithjof Thorsten Ohin - Bendic	62	39	66	55	63	[75.00]	52	337
65	GER 672	Pearl	Peter Göckel	58	59	64	58	26	[75.00]	75	340
66	FRA 392	Speed'eau	Antoine Jeu	70	61	48	54	64	[75.00]	59	356
67	GER 263	No Limits	Konrad Kühner	72	69	54	[75.00]	60	75	30	360
68	GER 266	Bostik Bad Boys	Jan Schmidt	65	66	65	[75.00]	54	75	44	369
69	FIN 328	Elsa	Paul Andersson	71	73	70	62	58	[75.00]	38	372
70	AUT 705	Sunshinetour's	August Schram	41	67	61	59	[75.00]	75	75	378
71	NED 422	DDL	Jeroen Lolcama	55	63	69	65	57	[75.00]	75	384
72	NOR 560	Lycke II	Arne David-Andersen	61	64	[75.00]	60	62	75	75	397
73	GER 327	Sayonara-light.com	Sascha Jäger	69	72	[75.00]	64	65	75	75	420
74	GER 325	Haiopei	Jörn Petry	66	62	[75.00]	75	75	75	75	428