On the second day of the 2022 Melges 24 European Championship when Strambapapà (ITA, 4-15) confirms himself as a leader of the provisional ranking, the Croatian crews came to occupy four of the top ten places, demonstrating extreme confidence sailing on fast one-design of Melges 24, of which the Croatian fleet has reached significant numbers during last a couple of seasons.

In fact, during the Race Five Michele Paoletti's crew wasn't performing so bright than in the previous ones, but despite the fifteen place obtained, it was still able to defend the lead in the ranking, followed by Andrea Racchelli's Altea (ITA, 8-12), seven points behind, and Ante Botica's Mataran 24 (CRO, 1-4): boat of the day, top performer of the Corinthian division and a new holder of the third place of the overall ranking.

Thanks to its performance, Mataran 24 was able to overpower the compatriots of Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic's Universitas Nova (CRO, 13-7), that dropped off the provisional podium and is currently the fourth in a ranking, that sees other two Croatian crews climbing into the Top Ten: Ante Cesic's Razjaren (CRO, 2-6), top performer of the open division, and Luka Sangulin's Panjic (CRO, 5-9).

Looking at the Corinthians, to occupy the second place in the ranking is Marco Zammarchi's Taki 4 (ITA, 14-5) with Niccolo Bertola steering, sixth overall right in front of Razjaren and Michael Goldfarb's War Canoe (USA, 23-13), crew that rarely misses the International Melges 24 Class' main events despite of coming from the country of stars and stripes. To complete the Corinthian provisional podium is Michael Tarabochia's White Room (GER, 20-11) with Luis Tarabochia at the helm.

A great fact to highlight is, that during the daily prizegiving presented by B&G a special award was given to the team of Working Girl (GER): the Felix Stoppenbrink's crew is the youngest among the participants, with the average age of 22.8 years old.

The Melges 24 European Championship will resume tomorrow at 9am to take advantage of the morning gusts of the northerly breeze: thanks to this, the fleet will sail on a different racecourse, positioned in front of the Lanterna, the world famous lighthouse of Genoa.

Quote of the day

"It was a great day for the Croatian crews here in Genoa, especially for Mataran 24 and for us, who sail on Razjaren. Regarding us, we sailed in a consistent way, preferring the right side of the course, especially in the opening of the day: everything went fine and now we are enjoying the results all together. Actually, between the marks we fight hard, but ashore is another story: despite the Croatian fleet is growing in a really fast way we never lose the chance to have some family moment like this one," stated Ante Cesic, owner of Razjaren.

2022 Melges 24 European Championship is organized and hosted by the Yacht Club Italiano in collaboration with the International Melges 24 Class Association and the Italian Melges 24 Class.

Top 10 (5 races sailed, 1 discard):

ITA 689 STRAMBAPAPA' Michele Paoletti, Giovanna Micol, Pietro Perelli, Giulia Pignolo, Davide Bivi 3-1-3-4-(15) 11 pts
ITA 722 ALTEA Andrea Racchelli, Gaudenzio Bonini, Michele Gregoratto, Rebecca Anderson, Matteo De Luca 4-2-4-8-(12) 18 pts
CRO 383 MATARAN 24 CORINTHIAN Ante Botica, Ivo Matic, Mario Skrlj, Damir Civadelic, Max Carija (16)-9-5-1-4 19 pts
CRO 567 UNIVERSITAS NOVA Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic, Marin Golem, Filip Miroic, Mia Kljakovic Gaspic, Sime Markic 2-11-2-(13)-7 22 pts
ITA 693 MELGINA Paolo Brescia, Simon Sivitz Kosuta, Jas Farneti, Jan Bassi, Stefano Orlandi 9-3-7-6-(19) 25 pts
ITA 778 TAKI 4 CORINTHIAN Niccolò Bertola, Pietro Seghezza, Marco Zammarchi, Giacomo Fossati, Giovanni Bannetta 1-7-(31)-14-5 27 pts
CRO728 RAZJAREN Ante Mesic, Łukasz Podniesinski, Zarko Rogosic, Pepi Jardas (27)-10-10-2-6 28 pts
USA 841 WAR CANOE Michael Goldfarb, Jonny Goldsberry, Matteo Ramian, Chris Rast, Andrea Serpi 6-4-6-(23)-13 29 pts
NOR 697 HELLY HANSEN LISA Kristoffer Spone, Christen Horn Johannessen, Børre Hekk Paulsen, Sigurd Hekk Paulsen 10-5-13-(25)-2 30 pts
CRO 739 PANJIC Luka Sangulin, Noa Sangulin, Tomislav Basic, Duje Frzop, Lucijan Jakovljev Lucijan (23)-8-8-5-9 30 pts

Corinthian Top 5 (5 races sailed, 1 discard):
CRO 383 MATARAN 24 CORINTHIAN Ante Botica, Ivo Matic, Mario Skrlj, Damir Civadelic, Max Carija (16)-9-5-1-4 19 pts
ITA 778 TAKI 4 CORINTHIAN Niccolò Bertola, Pietro Seghezza, Marco Zammarchi, Giacomo Fossati, Giovanni Bannetta 1-7-(31)-14-5 27 pts
GER 677 WHITE ROOM CORINTHIAN Luis Tarabochia, Sebastian Bühler, Marvin Frisch, Marco Tarabochia, Michael Tarabochia 14-(25)-1-20-11 46 pts
ITA139 AleAli EUROCART CORINTHIAN Gianfranco Noe, Barbara Bomben, Dean Bassi, Francesco Crichiutti, Federico Borghi (37BFD)-13-22-9-3 47 pts
NOR787 BLOW CORINTHIANPeder Nergaard, Morten Helgesen, Petrus Eide, Eivind Rubinstein 12-6-25-(27)-10 53 pts