Menorca Maxi Regatta, the winners are Open Season and Momo
EnglishMaxiVela 1 Giugno 2015 Zerogradinord 0
Mahon – The Menorca Maxi Regata crowned the winners of its second edition, which brought together the Wally and Maxi 72 classes, after sailing the final coastal race.
After six races sailed – 4 windward/leeward and 2 coastal races – in 4 days of competition, the second edition of this young regatta, which already has great international prestige, crowns its winners.
In the Wally class, with 12 boats at the starting line, the victory went to Open Season, who finished 1, 1, 9, 1, 5 and 2 with a total of 14 points. On the other hand, the five Maxi 72 participants paid homage to a powerful Momo who finished 1, 4, 3, 1, 1 and 2 in each race and finished with a total of 8 points.
The 24 nm coastal race in the vicinity of Mahón, showed the stunning beauty of the Isle of Colom (the biggest islet of the area and with the most paradisiacal beaches of Menorca –Els Tamarells and Arenal den Moro). This islet has been for centuries the biggest shelter when the Tramontana wind blows.
All the teams docked out knowing how important this 24 mile coastal race was. The race, which couldn’t be discarded, started with 6 knots of wind from the south-west which increased as the race went on.
The victory within the Wallys went to Magic Blue with Luca Bassani onboard and for Sir Peter Ogden’s Jethou in a tough battle with Momo in the Maxi 72 class.
Thomas Bscher’s Open Season, with Jochen Shumann calling the tactics, reached a very well worked victory helped by bad start from Tango G in the final race for the Wally Class.
With a tie between Open Season and Magic Blue with 14 points each, the final victory went to Open Season to the detriment of Magic Blue.
The third step of the podium went to Sir Lindsay Owen Jones’ Magic Carpet Cubed.
Pepe Ribes, crew boss onboard Open Season: “We sailed a great regatta and we can see every day we worked much better together and this shows in the results. The Menorca Maxi Regatta has been a great event, really tight and we’ve really enjoyed some real match-racing with boats such as Magic Carpet. Today, the bad start from Tango G worked in our favour, but the podium was really tight. I would like to congratulate Arianne Mainemare, PRO, and all their team for a fantastic regatta“.
Dieter Schon’s team, with Markus Wieser and Ross Halcrow onboard, despite having won the regatta already by the end of racing on Saturday, docked out the port of Mahón ready to win everything in the last day of racing.
The coastal race has been a tight battle between the final winner of the Menorca Maxi Regatta and Sir Peter Ogden’s Jethou with Brad Butterworth as tactician, who closed their scoreboard with a victory.
The general scoreboard placed Momo on the first step of the podium with three points ahead of second placed Jethou and seven over Shockwave. Fourth place went to Alexander Schaerer’s Caol Ila R and fifth to Roberto Tomasini’s Robertissima III.
Markus Wieser, tactician onboard Momo, returned to shore obviously happy after the work well done: “This is the first time we came to Menorca and both the port as the island are super-cool. Also the people are really hospitable. The races have been impressive. In this Maxi 72 class all the boats are very similar and you can’t blink for a second; a small mistake can make you lose too many meters that are very difficult to win back after. The level of all the crews that are here has been really high. We would really like to be back next year”.
Once the finish line for the coastal races was crossed, both fleets raced for the honours of the Ambassador Trophy. The boats sailed towards a new finishing line located in the Mahón Bay, in front of the Club Marítimo de Mahón. The race didn’t bring any points, after the coastal races, but they did bring the amazing sight of seeing these 17 boats sailing into the Mahón waters to all the public in the port. The Ambassadors Menorca Trophy went to Inti (Wally Class) and to Robertissima III (Maxi 72 Class).
Note concerning the discard: the coastal races (Race 3 and 5) cannot be discarded.
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