Strambapapà (today 1-3-7) is the first leader of the 2022 Melges 24 European Championship, an event organized by the Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the International Melges 24 Class Association and the Italian Melges 24 Class. The team of Michele Paoletti, with Giovanna Micol as tactician, took the lead thanks to the excellent interpretation of a race course made challenging by the swell, a residue of the strong wind that blew until last night, and by the east-southeast breeze unstable in intensity: conditions that promoted to the top of the ranking list the most experienced crews, or at least capable of brilliant boat handling.

Here, then, in Michele Paoletti's wake, trailing by only three points, are the defending champions of Altea (4-2-4) who, led by Andrea Racchelli, are currently holding off the Croatians of Univesritas Nova (2-11-2), with Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic at the tiller, by five lengths. Near to the provisional podium are the Americans of WarCanoe (6-4-6), skippered by Michael Goldfarb, and Paolo Brescia's Melgina (9-3-7), winner of last year's Melges 24 European Sailing Series.

Doing very well were the Norwegians of Lisa-Helly Hansen (10-5-13) who, led between the buoys by the experienced Kristofer Spone, among the protagonists of the first Melges 24 Worlds in 1998, were back on their own among the buoys of a main event of the class, to the point of occupying sixth place in the provisional ranking.

Looking at the Corinthian rankings, after today's three races the best is Ante Botica's Mataran 24 (16-9-5), very adept at getting back into the game after a subdued first race and currently holding seventh place overall. He is followed by the former World and European champions of Taki 4 (1-7-31) of Marco Zammarchi with Niccolo Bertola helming, who sees his ranking penalized by the thirty-first place he took in the third race, and Michael Tarabochia's White Room (14-25-1), steered by Luis Tarabochia, winning the last race of the day.

Thanks to the results filed this afternoon, the Melges 24 European Championship 2022 is to be considered valid and will resume tomorrow starting at 12:30 p.m. in the face of weather conditions that are expected to be lighter than today's.

Quotes of the day

"It was a very good day for us and it was by no means a foregone conclusion that it would be, given that it opened with the breaking of the backstay batten, which occurred before the initial race. Sailing with Michele Paoletti and Giovanna Micol always takes on the traits of a learning experience. Just today Giovanna was great: thanks to her calls we won the second race by steadily increasing the margin and managed to save the third race after a bad start" commented Pietro Perelli, trimmer of Strambapapà.

"We are coming back from a very difficult day: we are not used to sailing in such pronounced waves and in the first race we struggled more than expected to get in phase with the conditions. As time went on, we managed to get the measure of the race course and performed at our best, getting into the top ten" explained Ivo Matic, tactician of Mataran 24, current Corinthian leader.

Top 12, including Corinthian Top 3 after 3 races sailed:

ITA 689 Strambapapa' Michele Paoletti, Giovanna Micol, Pietro Perelli, Giulia Pignolo, Davide Bivi 3-1-3 7 pts
ITA 722 Altea Andrea Racchelli, Gaudenzio Bonini, Michele Gregoratto, Rebecca Anderson, Matteo De Luca 4-2-4 10 pts
CRO 567 Universitas Nova Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic, Marin Golem, Filip Miroic, Mia Kljakovic Gaspic, Sime Markic 2-11-2 15 pts
USA 841 War Canoe Michael Goldfarb, Jonny Goldsberry, Matteo Ramian, Chris Rast, Andrea Serpi 6-4-6 16 pts
ITA 693 Melgina Paolo Brescia, Simon Sivitz Kosuta, Jas Farneti, Jan Bassi, Stefano Orlandi 9-3- 7 19 pts
NOR 697 Helly Hansen Lisa Kristoffer Spone, Christen Horn Johannessen, Børre Hekk Paulsen, Sigurd Hekk Paulsen 10-5-13 28 pts
CRO 383 Mataran 24 Corinthian Ante Botica, Ivo Matic, Mario Skrlj, Damir Civadelic, Max Carija 16-9-5 30 pts
GER 673 Nefeli Peter Karrié, Alessandro Franci, Niccolò Bianchi, Saverio Cigliano, Alessandro Saettone 8-15-9- 32 pts
ITA 854 Stig Alessandro Rombelli, Giorgio Tortarolo, Matteo Ivaldi, Massimo Gherarducci, Federica Salva' 7-12-15 34 pts
ITA 778 Taki 4 CORINTHIAN Niccolò Bertola, Pietro Seghezza, Marco Zammarchi, Giacomo Fossati, Giovanni Bannetta 1-7-31 39 pts
CRO 739 Panjic Luka Sangulin, Noa Sangulin, Tomislav Basic, Duje Frzop, Lucijan Jakovljev Lucijan 23-8-8 39 pts
GER 677 White Room Corinthian Luis Tarabochia, Sebastian Bühler, Marvin Frisch, Marco Tarabochia, Michael Tarabochia 14-25-1 40 pts