Italy retakes lead at Nacra 17 Europeans

Weymouth, England (May 17, 2019) – The gold fleet at the Nacra 17 European Championship held the inner harbor course for today’s morning racing, and with the brisk Northeasterly breeze filling in overnight, the venue would emerge as a tricky test of 3-lap racing for the catamaran sailors.

The Danish team Lin Cenholt/Cp Lubeck held second going into the morning, after a stellar first day of gold fleet racing where they’d scored a 3,2,1. They continued their run today with a spectacular first race, starting near the pin, nailing the port layline and rounding the top mark first to run away with the win and into the overall lead.

GBR showed the depth of their squad with Chris Rashley/Laura Giovanetti winning the pin to round 2nd at the top, though they slipped to 5th by race end. Regatta leaders GBR’s John Gimson/Anna Burnett and 3rd placed ITA’s Ruggero Tita/Caterina Banti both faltered, scoring 23rd and 13th respectively, but four races meant the first gold fleet drop came into play.

The second race of the day had more mixing up of the fleet as well as the wind strength. A huge call at the start had the Germans Polgar/Werner port tack the fleet to head out right, but the top left paid off for FRA’s Vaireaux/Ancian, who had come into the day in 20th position. They led for most of the race before slipping to the Italians Tita/Banti after a split on the second upwind.

The tradeoff of the left positioning on the race course versus the bad air of the spinnakers had gone in favor of the Italians, who had split right at the bottom mark, and into the lead for the race, and then the regatta, as behind them Cenholt and Gimson finished 14th and 15th across the line. The Aussies showed their squad can still perform even without Waterhouse/Darmanin, with Lisa Darmanin’s brother Paul taking 3rd and the Outteridges finishing 4th.

The final race of the day the Italians proved they’re the team to beat, solidifying their previous win with another solid start in the middle and another well executed upwind to round the top mark first and never look back.

The Brits looked like they had a full squad game plan of heading left, with three of their boats fighting for the pin and Saxton/Boniface winning the inter-country battle, rounding the top mark second and maintaining to the finish. Gimson/Burnet steadily climbed back through the fleet to secure 3rd for the race, thus stemming the bleeding to drop only to 3rd overall.

The three point spread this morning from 1st to 3rd has shuffled positions and become a 14 point spread, but as we saw today anything can happen out on this race course, and every team can perform well in races out there!

The Nacra 17 Europeans are on May 13 to 19 off Weymouth, England.

Day Five Results (Top 5 of 55; 15 races, 2 discards)
1. ITA Ruggero Tita, Caterina Banti 31
2. DEN Lin Cenholt, CP Lubeck 36
3. GBR John Gimson, Anna Burnett 44
4. ARG Mateo Majdalani, Eugenia Bosco 52
5. GBR Ben Saxton, Nicola Boniface 56

Event details – Results – Facebook

North American Results:
Top ten or top position
25th Sarah Newberry/ David Liebenberg (USA)

Competing from North America:
Canada: Allie Surrette/ Max Flinn
USA: Sarah Newberry/ David Liebenberg, Riley Gibbs/ Anna Weis, Ravi Parent/ Caroline Atwood, Nicholas Martin/ Romy Mackenbrock

Source: Port Tack Racing