Onorato hangs on

Mascalzone Latino just one point ahead of Argo going into final day of Audi Melges 32 Europeans

Nine races held over three days of racing at the Audi Melges 32 European Championship have produced nine different winners in the individual races and tightly-packed overall results among the 22-strong fleet.

Following a less than brilliant day, Vincenzo Onorato's Mascalzone Latino hangs on to the overall leadership by just one point over Jason Carroll's Argo. The Italian boat Torpyone, helmed by Edoardo Lupi sits in third place, just four points behind the leader. Lanfranco Cirillo's Fantastica and Naofumi Kamei's Mamma Aiuto! are close behind in fourth and fifth place respectively.

With only one windward-leeward to be held in tomorrow's final race day to take the fleet to the full quota of 10 for the regatta, the conquest of the European title depends entirely on the final race of the series.

Light Sirocco breezes, which touched 14 knots in race eight but mainly blew at approximately 10 knots, for today's three races.

Race seven saw Lupi, with Branko Brcin calling tactics, round the top mark in fourth before climbing to second place behind race winner Filippo Pacinotti's Brontolo and ahead of Kamei in third. Although Carlo Alberini's Calvi Network got off to a good start in race eight, John Kilroy's Samba Pa Ti moved into the lead ahead of Pacinotti and Wolfgang Stolz's Opus One on the first downwind leg and all three held their positions to the finish.

In the final race of the day it was the turn of the two competing Japanese boats to shine as Kamei claimed his first bullet of the series – in a day which saw them rise from 13th to 5th place overall - while Yukihiro Ishida's Yasha Samurai took their best result so far with a third place finish behind France’s Jean Francois on Teasing Machine.

Nathan Wilmot, double Olympic gold medal winner in the 470 class and tactician aboard Mascalzone Latino was disappointed with today’s 15-17-6 scoreline: "It's close, it's hard. Today we didn't have a very good day and the results are really tight so we have to try to do better. Tomorrow will be important but we are still learning at the moment, today we had a few incidents which probably cost us about 10 points in total but tomorrow is another day and hopefully we can get back to where we need to be and stay in the lead."

Argo's tactician Cameron Appleton was equally hopeful for tomorrow: "There are so many people in the hunt and different people doing well in different races, the competition is extremely tight. We didn't feel we had a great day but to be one point off the lead is great. There's just one race tomorrow so now, we just have to go out there and have the best race of the regatta and if that is the case then we can win."

Exclusive social events are always a part of YCCS regattas and tonight the Melges 32 owners and crews will enjoy a barbecue hosted on the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s pool terrace overlooking Porto Cervo Marina.

Racing in the event is scheduled to conclude tomorrow, Sunday 1 July with the first starting signal at 11.30 a.m. and the final prize giving to follow. The forecast is for more Sirocco breeze of approximately 8 to 10 knots.

Full results here