Melges 24 ESS, in Portoroz War Canoe dominates the series

Portoroz – It has been a weekend of light see breeze in the bay of Piran and Portoroz, but still the Melges 24 fleet, composed for this occasion of twenty-five boats from eleven Countries, managed to complete a whole series of nine races for the second event of the 2018 Melges 24 European Sailing Series.

The fight for the podium has been tough until the very last race of the series, when the top teams were all tied in a bunch of points: with partial scores of 6-3-2, the American entry War Canoe (USA841), at the first experience in the 2018 Melges 24 European Sailing Series, managed to defend the first place obtained in the previous days of racing affirming itself as winner of the event of Portoroz.

“We are extremely happy with this result, we had been training a while in the USA with the events of Miami and Charleston before coming here: we plan a very busy season with the Melges 24, that is going to include both the Worlds in Victoria and the Europeans in Riva del Garda. For this reason it was essential to start measuring ourselves with the European fleet, to start knowing the teams and to perform well on Garda Lake. We will meet again in Torbole” stated Mike Goldfarb, owner and driver of War Canoe.

At the back of War Canoe, the Estonian entry Lenny (EST790, 1-18-3): the crew by Tonu Toniste started climbing up the ranking on Saturday, benefitting from the light wind conditions, and managed to keep the positive scoreline also on Sunday. With a victory, an eighteenth (discarded) and a third as partials of the last day of racing, Lenny is not only silver medal in the overall podium, but also winner in the Corinthian division.

“We are actually surprised with this result, we hadn’t been sailing since the Worlds in Helsinki and we have also some new members in the crews: beginning with such a success is unbelievable – commented Tonu Toniste, helmsman of Lenny, going on: “We will be competing in five events in total in 2018 and our top event is the Europeans on Garda Lake: before that, we will have some training on Garda, especially with the event of Torbole, to start testing the race course and measuring with the fleet. The Europeans will be an awesome event”.

Bronze medal goes to the reigning World Champions on board Maidollis (ITA854, 4-1-7) by Gianluca Perego, very consistent all through the series but penalized by a black flag disqualification on Saturday. The top five is completed by Taki 4 (ITA778, 11-4-5) and by FGF Sailing Team (HUN728, 14-9-4).

The Corinthian podium sees the already named Lenny earn the gold medal, with Taki 4 that closes in second and Swiss entry Andele (SUI821, 25-7-9) in third. A special mention goes to the German crew of White Room (GER677, 22-2-1), protagonist of a very consistent weekend of sailing and also winner of the last race of the series, that closes the event in fourth position among the Corinthians.

Part of the Melges 24 fleet will now move to Canada for the 2018 Melges 24 World Championship, while the Melges 24 European Sailing Series will resume on June 29th to July 1st in Torbole, where the crews will have the possibility to start testing the race course for the Europeans.

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