Melges 24 European Sailing Series, in Portoroz the winner is EFG Bank

Portoroz – Christopher Rast’s EFG Bank (SUI684) helmed by Flavio Favini in open division and Eelco Blok’s Kesbeke/Sika/Gill (NED827) with Ronald Veraar helming in Corinthian division got the best points for the 2016 Melges 24 European Sailing Series ranking at the first event of the season in Portoroz, Slovenia over the weekend of April 1-3.

Twenty six teams from thirteen nations from all over the Europe travelled to Portoroz to start their sailing season there at the first event of the 2016 Melges 24 European Sailing Series. The event, valid also as the Melges 24 Open Slovenian National Championship and the first event of the Melges 24 Italian Sailing Series under the name of the Portoroz Melges 24 Regatta was hosted by the Yacht Club Portoroz and Portoroz Marina in co-operation with the International Melges 24 Class Association.

Third morning of the regatta was not much different than the first two – the lack of wind in the morning kept the fleet ashore. But a nice sea breeze of 10-12 knots in the afternoon allowed for the Race Committee to manage two races before the time limit at 4 pm. The race course was set more further to the sea close to the historical town Piran today. Even there was some wind shift in the left the fleet was spread evenly to the both sides of the course. The wind continued to play the tricks dying ten minutes after the finish of the first race of the day keeping the fleet waiting again. In the next attempt of the start some boats were too eager to go to the course and the fleet was penalized with the black flag start. Still – all good at the end and six races in total was what the Race Committee led by Bojan Gale managed to execute in these tricky spring conditions.

Christopher Rast’s EFG Bank with Flavio Favini helming continued its consistent racing collecting a bullet from the first race of the day with a great margin despite of the fact that their start wasn’t so successful. The second result from the final race and the discard of the twelfth result secured to the team including Christopher Rast, Flavio Favini, Giovanni Ferrari, Aldo Bottagisio and Jaro Furlani the victory of the regatta with thirteen points in total.

Results.

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