Michele Paoletti's Strambapapà wins the Melges 24 regatta

The Gulf of Trieste didn't betray Melges 24 teams at the Yacht Club Adriaco's International Sailing Week 2023, where the 10th event of the 2023 Melges 24 European Sailing Series took place from September 22nd to 24th, valid also as the Melges 24 Adriaco 2023 and Italian Melges 24 Tour ACT 4. 

Three windy days and Bora up to 25 knots on the last day, wasn't a hard challenge for the reigning Melges 24 European Champion Strambapapà of Michele Paoletti and Giovanna Micol, who dominated the regatta in their home waters since the first race, taking five bullets out of eight races, adding two seconds and one third to the score. They won a regatta with a 10-point margin ahead of German White Room of Michael Tarabochia with Luis Tarabochia helming, who finished the regatta in Trieste as the runner-up and Corinthian champion.

Another Corinthian team, Miles Quinton's Gill Race Team (GBR) with Geoff Carveth at the helm, completed the overall podium, another ten points behind White Room. Arkanoe by Montura (ITA) of Sergio Caramel finished fourth and the Hungarian team of Akos Csolto on Chinook rounded up Top 5, also completing the Corinthian Top 3.

Michele Paoletti, sailing in his home waters, was happy both with the conditions as with the local Melges 24 fleet. „We had three fantastic days of sailing in Trieste's bay. We got 12-20 knots of south-easterly breeze and big swell on the first day and again 15-20 knots of East-North-East on the second and third. We are very happy about our consistency in terms of speed, tactics, teamwork, and results. A special thanks to all our crew members, in particular, Alice Linussi who substituted our bow girl Giulia Pignolo on Day One. I'd like to also thank our suppliers Vakaros and Robline for their support!"

Local Melges 24 fleet is growing in terms of numbers and sailing level. New crews of young dinghy sailors as Massimiliano Antoniazzi steering and Mattia Santostefano calling tactics on FoxyDry, have shown already good moments." 

Michele Paoletti steering the boat, is crewing with his wife Giovanna Micol, and childhood friends' couple of Davide Bivi and Giulia Pignolo along with Than Alexander Herey.

Also, Giovanna Micol didn't hold back when sharing her expressions about the victorious weekend at home. "It has been a great weekend for us, and we kept our level of performance also in this event. For us this regatta was special because we raced at home, so winning here, where we started to sail as kids, is very special! Thanks to YC Adriaco for a superlative weekend of sailing here in Trieste!" says Micol.

Michael Tarabochia's family team of White Room, who won the last race of the regatta over Strambapapà, was happy to sail and to win a race against such a strong and talented team of Paoletti. 

"We had very tough conditions and it was great to sail against the sailors from Trieste – we had eight varying races with high demands in terms of tactics and boat handling. It was a great racing and congratulations to Michele and his crew!"

White Room is steered by Michael's older son Luis Tarabochia, and crewed with Michael's younger son Marco Tarabochia, himself, and Luis' girlfriend Julia Nett, under the supervision of tactical calls by Sebastian Bühler.

Miles Quinton from UK, whose Gill Race Team completed the podium of the event, said they had a wonderful three days of racing at 2023 Melges24 European Sailing Series organised by Yacht Club Adriaco. 

„Although we had some unseasonal rainstorms on Thursday as we were rigging, the weather cleared up for the first day of racing in light and shifty conditions from the South. Three races were held with Michele Paoletti on Strambapapa leading the fleet with three first places, Michael Tarabochia's White Room in second place and our Gill Race Team in third overnight. We had an earlier start on Saturday, but we were held on-shore for an hour so eventually started racing at a similar time to Friday light and shifty winds that strengthened towards the end of the day with another three races completed with Michele consolidating his position as the leader overnight. We had a wonderful crew party hosted at the club on Saturday evening with very windy conditions that meant many teams had to remove jibs and secure their boats overnight. Sunday saw stronger wind conditions up to 16-18 knots which saw two great races in planing conditions with Michele further consolidating their position to win the regatta, Michael chasing hard for second, and a similar fierce competition for us with Montura and Chinook for third place. The organisation and hospitality of the Yacht Club Adriaco was excellent throughout!"

Final results – 19 entries, 6 Corinthians (8 races, 1 discard)

1 ITA689 STRAMBAPAPA´ Giovanna Micol, Michele Paoletti 1,1,1,1,(3),2,1,2 - 9pts

2 GER677 WHITE ROOM (COR) Michael Tarabochia, Luis Tarabochia (4),3,3,3,2,4,3,1 - 19pts

3 GBR694 GILL RACE TEAM (COR) Miles Quinton, Geoff Carveth 2,2,7,5,(18),3,4,6 - 29pts

4 ITA809 ARKANOE BY MONTURA Sergio Caramel 11,5,2,2,5,(20 RET),2,5 - 32pts

5 HUN850 CHINOOK (COR) Akos Csolto 3,6,4,(11),4,5,9,4 - 35pts

6 ITA791 ZUXU Serena Dolcetta, Maurizio Planine 6,7,9,4,(17),7,7,3 - 43pts

7 CRO827 BLUE LABEL Davor Jelaca, Hrvoje Petrovic 9,10,(11),7,6,1,8,8 - 49pts

8 GER503 WORKING GIRL (COR) Felix Stoppenbrink, Frederik Von Waldow 7,9,5,6,9,6,(18),7 - 49pts

9 ITA454 SKORPIOS Alberto Venuti, Tito Rodda (14),11,13,9,1,12,6,9 - 61pts

10 ITA636 MARRAKECH EXPRESS (COR) Davide Rapotez (12),8,8,10,7,10,10,11 - 64pts

11 ITA139 ALEALI EUROCART Barbara Bomben, Gianfranco Noè 5,4,6,8,12,11,(20DNC),20DNC - 66pts

12 SLO564 PAC-MAN Alan Mahne Kalin 15,12,12,16,16,8,5,(20RET) - 84pts

13 ITA297 MIG Alessandro Gianni, Luca Carciotti 8,13,14,17,14,(20UFD),13,10 - 89pts

14 CRO792 JOYRUNNER Boris Tomic 13,(17),15,13,13,14,12,14 - 94pts

15 ITA579 FOXYDRY Luca Antoniazzi, Massimiliano Antoniazzi 17,14,(20RET),20UFD,8,9,16,12 - 96pts

16 ITA538 ARIEL Damiano Desirò 10,15,10,(18),15,16,17,15 - 98pts

17 ITA633 WADADLI (COR) Gianandrea Facchini, Raul Bottura (19),16,16,14,10,17,11,16 - 100pts

18 ITA748 DAITO NANO Dino Orioli 16,(20DNS),20DNS,12,11,15,14,17 - 105pts

19 ITA455 WHITE RAVEN Giuseppe Isidori 18,18,17,15,(19),13,15,13 - 109pts

A big thank you from the International Melges 24 Class Association to Yacht Club Adriaco and the local Melges 24 fleet of Trieste for hosting and organizing a great regatta in the city of Barcolana, and putting on a show to enjoy and remember.

There are three more events to sail this season in Europe – all of them in Croatia and one yet valid for the 2023 Melges 24 European Sailing Series, however, all three are valid for the European ranking.

The host of the 2024 Melges 24 European Championship, Sailing Club Split will host the final ESS event on October 28-29. Other two ranking events will be hosted respectively by the JK Mornar in Split on October 6-8, and by JK Trogir, the home club of the reigning Corinthian World and European Champion Mataran 24, on November 17-19. The latter one will declare the Melges 24 Croatian National Champions 2023.

Croatian Melges 24 Class, as the co-organiser of the three last events of the European series, will organise free outdoor storage for the boats between the October regattas and the Croatian Championship in November.