Tight finishes

Between the Swan 45s and X-35s competing in the Georgio Falck memorial race

With three more races, the third edition of the Memorial Falck (powered by Jaguar) wrapped up today in Tuscany at La Marina di Scarlino. Despite the challenging weather conditions over the Easter weekend eight Swan 45s and 10 X-35s races were held over four days on the Gulf of Follonica, once again proving the excellence of the Tuscan race course.

In the Swan 45 class - which has its own international base at Scarlino’s Marina Yacht Service - an exciting duel unfolded between the Dutch boat No Limitsand the Italian Talj of Vittorio Ruggiero. Starting the day on equal points, the two teams sailed a virtual match race in weather conditions varying from 5-8 knots of northeasterly to a gusty northwesterly that reached 24 knots by late afternoon. No Limits, with Portugual's Afonso Domingos calling tactics, brought home the overall victory beating Talj, where Lorenzo Bressani was on tactics, by three points after today’s three races. In third place was another Dutch yacht, Charisma owned by Nico Poons where Danish match racer Jesper Radich was calling tactics.

Afonso Domingos stated: "The Race Committee did an excellent job in difficult conditions and made some very good calls. La Marina di Scarlino is great for this kind of events. Today we focused on keeping Talj in check and we had a good results. I am very pleased. I had already raced in this area with TP52s and find it ideal for sailing."

The X-35 class was also very competitve. Lelagain, owned by Alessandor and Franco Solerio, and Carlo Brenco's Tixelio finished the series on equal points. The final victory went to Lelagain, where the tactician was Italian Michele Paoletti, a Soling sailor from the Sydney Games and with Mascalzone Latino in the last America’s Cup. Even on count back it was close with Lelagain on three firsts and two seconds from the three first and one second of Tixelio. Accordingly the Memorial Giorgio Falck went to Lelagain with Blue Sky owned by Claudio Terrieri third.

Franco Solerio, Italian Snipe champion and helmsman of Lelagain (owned by his father Alessandro), was pleased with the organisation: "Coming to Scarlino is always a pleasure." he said, “These were challenging days weather-wise, Thanks to the high level of the X-35 fleet I don’t miss the fun I used to have coming here with my Snipe. As a crew we managed to sail well together, also thanks to the support of our tactician Michele Paoletti. The fact that the shopping and dining areas at La Marina di Scarlino will soon be open , will give us even more reason to come back and party after the races.”