Il Grigio and Sugar lead ORC Sportboat European Championship

After a 22-mile coastal race to start the event yesterday, today two more races were held at the ORC Sportboat European Championship hosted by the Diporto Nautico Sistiana. Both were on windward/leeward courses, which will continue tomorrow through Saturday, the final day of the event.

The fleet of 21 teams are separated into two divisions, A (11 boats) and B (10), based on the rated speeds of the boats, yet are scored together racing on the same courses.

In today's first race the competitors started in a dying easterly bora wind condition, which started as 10 knots at the start then dropped to 5-6 knots in the final race. About two and a half hours after the conclusion of the first race, the wind returned an stabilized to the southwest at 7-8 knots. With these conditions Race Committee Chairman Dodi Villani started the second race of the day after moving the race course further out from the coast.

At the end of this second day and with three races sailed, David Tomasin's Spanish Melges 24 Il Grigio (shown above), helmed by Francesco Crichiutti, is leading Division A based on scores of 1-3-6.5…this latter score is due to tying in corrected time with the Italian SB20 Eavle.

"In the first race we managed to get a good start in clear air,” said Crichiutti. “In the second one, after a good start we made some tactical mistakes in the first leg and partially recovered. Fortunately, we didn't suffer any technical boat problems today. We are competitive."

Second and third place in Division A, respectively, went to Liam Pardy’s SB4 Beugen II (an all-carbon boat Pardy built in the same molds as the SB20, shown above) and Davide Rapotez’s Melges 24 Raffica from Italy (shown to the right).

"It was a challenging day for everyone, because after the first race we had to wait quite a long time before taking off on the next race," said Rapotez. "In that race we started very well believing in the left side of the race course, facing the open sea. We arrived at the first buoy together with the boats from the head of the fleet, but we had to give way to some teams approaching on starboard tack. Downwind we continued to believe in the open water side and started to make up positions. We were always in the group of the other Melges 24's, and with the boats close together we had fun. The Gulf of Trieste gave us good feelings today and we also made up a bit for the bad eleventh place in yesterday's distance race."

Estonian Ott Kikkas’s Corsa 915 Sugar (shown above) is leading Division B with Sandro Montefusco at the helm and Matteo Ivaldi as tactician. This team has a 7-1-1 score line and has the lowest total points in the fleet.

"After the bitter taste in our mouth that yesterday's coastal race had left us, where we had compromised our result right at the end due to the wind coming from behind, in today's races we wanted to check if we are the ones who are out of shape or if we are still able to win races,” said Ivaldi. “The boat is going well, we got off to clean starts and we were also lucky, as two of our direct opponents ran into early start disqualifications."

Second and third place in the Division B standings are, respectively, Lorenzo Bertini’s Platu 25 Ursa Minor and Andrea Pietrolucci’s Este 24 Milu' 4. Both teams are from Italy.

Tomorrow to take advantage of the bora wind expected in the morning, the Race Committee has decided to bring forward the warning signal for the first race to 9:30 AM.

𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟯 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟯 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀

𝗔 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟯
1. 𝗜l 𝗚rigio ITA-405 Melges 24 David Tomasin 1-3-6.5. 10.5pts
2. 𝗕eugen 𝗜𝗜 SUI-380 SB4 Carbon Liam Pardy/SportsBoat World 2-6-3.5. 11.5pts
3. 𝗥affica ITA-748 Melges 24 Davide Rapotez 11-8-3.5 22.5pts

𝗕 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟯
1. 𝗦ugar EST-711 Corsa 915 Ott Kikkas - 7-1-1 9pts
2. 𝗨rsa 𝗠inor ITA-25220 Platu 25 OD Lorenzo Bertini 16-5-2–23pts
3. 𝗠ilu' 𝟰 ITA-24100 Este 24 Andrea Pietrolucci 9-9-5. 23pts

𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟮 𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀
A Div - 𝗜l 𝗚rigio ITA-405 Melges 24 David Tomasin
A Div - 𝗥affica ITA-748 Melges 24 Davide Rapotez
B Div - 𝗦ugar EST-711 Corsa 915 Ott Kikkas