Melges 20 Sailing Series at Porto Ercole - Day 2
by International Melges 20 Class Association 8 May 2016 07:53 BST
6-8 May 2016
Tight at the top
With six races complete and a discard in play, the points race is extremely tight as teams anticipate final racing showdown on Sunday
The Melges 20 fleet of forty teams representing nine nations battled more light air conditions on Day Two of the second act of the Sailing Series® Melges 20. Three additional races were completed with overnight leader Alessandro Rombelli at the helm of STIG hanging on to the lead by a thread. Michael Illbruck's Pinta had a satisfying day on the water settling for second place overall on the points tiebreaker. Portovenere champion Richard Davies on Section 16 made it a 'moving' day to finish in third.
As if the light air conditions weren't challenging enough to deal with, adding three races to the scoreboard also meant that each team would discard their worst score. This shuffled the deck of players setting up for an intense showdown on Sunday.
The star of the day clearly was Matteo Marenghi Vaselli on Raya acquiring bullets in Race Four and Six.
In Race Four, Marenghi Vaselli took the early lead to earn a start-to-finish win ahead of a hard-charging Illbruck (second) and Davies (third).
The second race of the day, Race Five in the eight-part series featured some grand highlights. Apart from the very competitive upper rim of teams - winner Rombelli, Alexander Ezhkov on Pirogovo Yacht Club, and Corrado Agusta on Customly, the #MELGES20NEXT team which includes youth duo Matteo Capurro and Matteo Poppu, got on the good foot to take an awesome fourth place finish. Wes Whitmyer Jr.'s Slingshot (sixth) and Jan Kuchar's Aloha (seventh) had great top ten finishes as well.
Pumped up and on the upswing, the Capurro/Poppu team gave a repeat performance in Race Six coming up with another top five finish.
The final showdown will happen on Sunday where two more races are scheduled to take place. With the points spread so tight, the Porto Ercole trophy is still very much up for grabs!
Racing Coverage
As with other Melges 20 events in Europe and around the world, racing updates will be posted online at the Official Melges 20 Facebook Page. Tune in for the latest racing information, results, video interviews, and photos. Race reports, press releases and photos will be made available online each day post racing at melges20.com.
Results after Day 2: (top ten, 6 races, 1 discard)
1.) Alessandro Rombelli, STIG; 3-2-1-[22]-1-16 = 23pts
2.) Michael Illbruck, Pinta; 4-9-[10]-2-5-3 = 23pts
3.) Richard Davies, Section 16; [20]-1-6-3-16-2 = 28pts
4.) Alexander Ezhkov, Pirogovo Yacht Club; 9-[12]-9-4-2-5 = 29pts
5.) Corrado Agusta, Customly; 2-[13]-7-6-3-13 = 31pts
6.) Guido Miani, Out of Reach; 1-5-4-[19]-13-10 = 33pts
7.) Igor Rytov, Russian Bogatyrs; [22]-3-5-13-10-6 = 37pts
8.) Matteo Marenghi Vaselli, Raya; [26]-4-18-1-14-1 = 38pts
9.) Lauro Bonora, Camay; 10-8-3-9-[17]-9 = 39pts
10.) Achille Onorato, Mascalzone Latino Jr.; 5-[22]-2-21-12-7 = 47pts