Garda lake delivered great conditions this past week for the Persico 69F Cup, GP3 of the 2022 Season. 12 amazing races were finished by the nine teams competing with the winner to be crowned only after the last race, worth double points. The French Groupe Atlantic with Valentin Sipan, Clement Cron and Louis Chambet, won gold, with a thin 2-point margin over the second, Katana Sailing Team (SUI) and 2.5 over the third and fourth, tied on points, respectively FIN1Racing (FIN) and CER Mirabaud – Ville de Geneve (SUI).
Day one was one for tight battles and photo finish duels and ended with CER Mirabaud – Ville de Geneve leading the provisional ranking having finished top three in five out of six races. Nelson Mettraux said: "I think we can be really happy with the preparation we did in the last few days, we are in the race. We are proud to be competing with such good teams".
On the other hand, Louis Chambet of team GROUPE Atlantic commented: "We are left with a bit of mixed feelings, the beginning of the day was complicated for us, but we ended up having some good results and eventually catching up". The frustration comes from having had to deal with a retirement on the second race for a technical issue.
After a forced lay day due to troubled weather conditions on Saturday, everyone was back on the water on Sunday early morning to sail with the Garda lage Northern wind, Peler.
Three races were held in the morning and three more with the typical afternoon breeze coming from the South, Ora. Five different teams have won a regatta yesterday and this is proof of the high level of the fleet.
"This regatta was always very tight" said Clément Cron, Groupe Atlantic. "Since the beginning of the GP we tried to take the lead but we lost some points on Day1. We are really happy to finish this event with a proper fight as we like to win regattas on the last race! We managed to progress and take over some other teams throughout the event which feels good and leaves us with high hopes for the next events."
Next Persico 69F Cup will move to Spain, in Puerto Portals, Mallorca, with two back-to-back events: GP4.1 from October 18th to the 23rd and GP4.2 from October 24th to the 29th.
In the meantime in USA the first of three 69F US Select Series will take place in Newport, RI, from September 30th to October 3rd, and it will see four American Magic teams among its entries. The America's Cup challenger will use the Series as a preliminary selection of their Under 25 crew to attend the Youth America's Cup in Valencia in 2024.
Persico 69F Cup GP3 Malcesine Final Ranking
208 pts Groupe Atlantic
206 pts Katana Sailing Team
205.5 pts Fin1Racing
205.5 pts CER Mirabaud - Ville de Genève
183 pts Team ID Voile
169 pts Xela Racing
162.5 pts SDS Racing
153 pts Team Solano
128.5 pts Parmigiano