20th Imperia Winter Regatta at Yacht Club Imperia - Day 2
by Laura Jelmini 6 Dec 2009 12:05 GMT
3-8 December 2009
The second day of 20th Imperia Winter Regatta with the organization of Yacht Club Imperia was held on a sunny day over the 4 sailing areas in front of Imperia town.
In the morning a light northerly wind was blowing and for this reason the Race Committees decided for postponement. Later the wind turned to southwest up to 17/18 knots.
The Byte CII fleet (80 boats) was the first one to set sail. The sea was quite smooth, only some long waves coming fron the previous days stormy weather.
The first start had to be abandoned after the second windward mark rounding due to the wind dropping. Three races have been sailed with only a few black flags for both men and women starts. With for races sailed, the European title can be awarded as well as the qualification for Youth Olympic Games.
Three different winners in the men's division means a good balance among the fleet. Terence Choo from Singapore was the firsr winner of the day (after 4 races he stands in third position); Hungarian Peter Batho now leads.
There were three races as well for 420 class, the largest fleet at sea with 89 men and 43 ladies. After 5 races (1 discard) the leader of both divisions are Italian crews; the men Falcetelli/ Franciolini and the ladies Amendola/Paolillo.
Two races for Olympic 470 and Laser classes that started their series today. They had the same weather conditions as the other courses, southwesterly wind up to 17/18 knots. In the 470 class both races has been won by the same teams, German men Zepunkte/Baldewein and women Nincevic/Zupa from Croatia.
As usual the races are 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.