Change of Pace at Melges 24 Worlds

Published on August 2nd, 2017

Helsinki, Finland (August 2, 2017) – The morning began with heavy rain, keeping the Melges 24 fleet moored to wait two hours for the wind to stabilize before racing could begin on day three at the 2017 Melges 24 World Championship.

Two races were sailed today, with lighter wind conditions than those experienced yesterday when after the sixth race the discard came into play. First victory of the day went to the Italian entry Altea (1-18 today) by Andrea Racchelli, followed on the finish line by Norvegian Baghdad II (2-24) with Kristoffer Spone in helm. Third were the current leaders of the provisional ranking aboard Luca Perego’s Maidollis (3-20) of Italy.

“It has been a bizarre day for us: we sailed well in the first race, we took the right tactical choices,” declared the helmsman of Altea, Andrea Racchelli. “On board, everything worked well even in the second race but we chose the right side of the race course and the huge wind shift deeply penalized us. It’s good to be in the top three now, but we are so close to our followers, we will have to benefit at the best from the heavy wind forecasted for the next days, which we deeply like, to try to remain on a podium position.”

The second race of the day, number seven of the series, is the one that brings more surprises in the ranking: a big wind shift to the left in the first upwind leg penalizes the group that was racing on the right side of the race course: in these group, there was a great portion of crews currently occupying top-ranking positions. The victory goes to John Brown’s Blind Squirrel USA547 (9-1) that, with this result, scores the first bullet of the series, followed by Slam & Blow NOR787 (30-2) with Peder Nergaard in helm and American entry Mikey USA838 (19-3) by Kevin Welch.

Marco Zammarchi’s Taki 4 ITA778 (7-20) with Niccolo Bertola in helm maintains the leadership of the Corinthian division, where the bullets of today were both scored by Luis Tarabochia’s White Room GER677 (1-1), that now follows the reigning World Champions in the Corinthian ranking with a margin of 11 points. Third place is occupied by Estonian entry Lenny EST790 (2-21) with past Olympians Tõniste twins aboard, just one point behind White Room.

Sun and heavy breeze are forecasted for tomorrow with three more races planned. Racing for the 20th edition is scheduled on July 31 to August 4.