The ranking emerged at the end of Day One of the opening event of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series 2022, organized by the Croatian Melges 24 Class Association along with ACI Marina Rovinj and JK Maestral Rovinj, is one of those you do not imagine.
Although the International Melges 24 Class Association has always proved to be balanced and to be able to give satisfaction equally to the Corinthians and professionals, it was unexpected, after three races, to see three of the top five spots occupied by non-professional crews. An almost absolute novelty, which is accompanied by the fact that five of the current Top Ten are representatives of the Croatian fleet, whose numerical growth in the last year is now comforted by some of the great performances.
Managing really well a 10-15 knots Jugo (south-easterly wind typical to this area), the Corinthian crew of Mataran 24 (1-3-7), owned of Ante Botica, was on fire and took the provisional leadership with just one point margin on former Croatian Olympian Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic at the helm of Universitas Nova (3-6-3) and five on Sergio Caramel's Arkanoé by Montura (4-8-4), able to close the day as the best Italian crew, while the top five is completed by Akos Csolto's Seven-Five-Nine (5-4-9), being the third ranked Corinthian team, and Luka Šangulin's Panjic (13-5-2), driven among the shift of wind by Tomislav Basic, one of the best Croatian match racer.
The remaining places in the Top Ten are occupied by some of the teams that have been among the protagonists in recent years: reigning Corinthian World Champion Taki 4 (ITA) of Marco Zammarchi with Niccolo Bertola at the helm is sixth, while Gill Race Team (GBR) of Miles Quinton with Geoff Carveth helming, former winner of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series is seventh, right in front of Strambapapà (ITA), helmed by former Italian Olympian Michele Paoletti.
On the other hand, the first day on Melges 24 of Marcello Caldonazzo Arvedi was almost great: fresh owner of Gilles (ITA), he is sailing with a well experienced crew, led by former Italian Olympian and America's Cup sailor Pietro D'Alì, and got the satisfaction to close the day with a bullet. Paolo Brescia's team on Melgina (ITA), who was the 2021 winner of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series and is Marcello's friend and fellow member from the Yacht Club Italiano, took the bullet from Race Two.
The first event of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series 2022 will resume on Saturday, April 2: PRO Marko Mišura, who today made a great job by coordinating well the Race Officials, due to some good weather forecast, plan to have other three races, starting from 11am.