20th Imperia Winter Regatta at Yacht Club Imperia - Day 1
by Laura Jelmini 4 Dec 2009 20:28 GMT
3-8 December 2009
Demanding weather conditions for the opening racing day; rough sea and northerly winds up to 24 knots on both the 420 and Byte CII sailing areas, a few showers with the fleet ashore in the morning. For this reason the Race Committee postponed the start and it has not been possible to complete the programme. Only one race out of the 4 scheduled for class Byte CII and only two out of three for the 420s.
The day has been particularly demanding for the young sailors of the Byte CII class, most of them for the first time on board the Bruce designed dinghy said Paolo Portiglia from Nautivela (Byte CII Builder for Europe): ”The young sailors proved that it is quite easy to deal with a new boat like Byte CII and they could compete with good sailors such as the 2009 World Champion Darren Choy from Singapore who today crossed the finishing line in tenth position.”
Winner of the race (44 competitors) was Polish Tadeusz Kubiak. In the female category the winner was Spanish sailor Ilena Marti.
A large fleet of 420s crowded the race area in front of Oneglia Harbour; 90 male and 40 female teams sailed two races. First place in the overall results for the German team Winlel/Tielemann (2-1) in the mens category and for the British crew of Burnet/Stewart in the female one.
Starting from tomorrow are the Lasers (men and women), Laser Radials, 470s (men and women), 29ers and L’Equipe classes.
The official opening ceremony has been held at the IWR headquarters (ex Deposito Franco, Oneglia Harbour) last night.
As usual the races will be managed by an International jury with race officers coming from Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Israel and Italy and by three different Race Committees.
350 teams from 27 different countries (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lituania, Monaco, Netherland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Ucraine) are attending the event.
All information (live races, results and photos during the event) are posted on www.i-w-r.com