European Match Race Tour 2017 Event 4 at Monaco
by Helmut Czasny-Bonomo 11 Apr 2017 06:57 BST
7-9 April 2017
J70 European Match Race Tour in Monaco © EMRT / Yacht Club de Monaco
Monaco's golden breeze puts Bertheau back into the lead in the European Tour
Young French skipper Simon Bertheau struck back at Monaco Match Race to regain the lead of the European tour with a flawless victory of the Round Robin, leaving local skipper Francois Brenac on second place. Italian Rocco Attilli, bronze medaillist at the Youth European Championship finished on third place ahead of Austria's Helmut Czasny.
The first Monaco Match Race, perfectly organized the Yacht Club de Monaco with support of the Monegasque J/70 Association, saw three days of spectacular racing just in front of the world famous landscape of Monte Carlo. Bright sunshine and a light to medium but steady breeze offered the race management team headed by Thierry Leret the opportunity to run matches on all three days.
Simon Bertheau made it clear from the beginning that he is looking for his third win in a row at the European tour and to claim back the lead from Slovenian Dejan Presen. Behind the French team, there were close fights for the podium between the J/70 experts from Yacht Club de Monaco, Francois Brenac, the Italian youth team with skipper Rocco Attilli and the Vienna Match Race Team with skipper Helmut Czasny.
"We are very excited about being on top of the leader board", explained a super-happy French skipper Simon Bertheau, "it is all about team work and hard training. We had some tough matches but my team is great and we were always in control and managed to leave Monaco unbeaten. We look very much forward to the next events and the Grand Final!"
Bertheau is now back on the leader board with a maximum score of 150 points ahead of Slovenia Dejan Presen (110 points) and Austrian Christian Binder (100 points). The European Match Race tour will now head to Szczecin Match Cup at the end of May before reaching its northern summit at Copenhagen in June. The second last stop will be at Germany's Ploen in August. The top eight skippers will qualify for the Grand Final which will take place in Ravenna from 8 – 10 September 2017.
Event 4 Results:
1 – Simon Bertheau - FRA
2 - Francois Brenac - FRA
3 – Rocco Attilli - ITA
4 – Helmut Czasny – AUT
5 – Max Trippolt – AUT
6 – Max Bulley – SUI
7 – Piotr Harasimovics - POL
8 – Thomas Badri - FRA
Standings after 4 events:
| Pos | Skipper | Nat | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | Simon Bertheau | FRA. | 150 |
| 2 | Dejan Presen | SLO | 110 |
| 3 | Christian Binder | AUT | 100 |
| 4 | Vladimir Lipavsky | RUS | 75 |
| 5 | Helmut Czasny | AUT | 55 |
| 6 | Patryk Zbroja | POL | 50 |
| 7 | Teo Piasevoli | CRO | 40 |
| 8 | Francois Brenac | FRA. | 40 |
| 9 | Rocco Attilli | ITA | 35 |
| 10 | Adam Smith | AUS | 30 |
| 11 | Piotr Harasimowics | POL | 30 |
| 12 | Dore De Morsier | SUI | 25 |
| 13 | Pavle Kostov | CRO | 25 |
| 14 | Max Trippolt | AUT | 25 |
| 15 | Lars Hückstedt | GER | 20 |
| 16 | Max Bulley | SUI | 20 |
| 17 | Julian Kircher | AUT | 15 |
| 18 | Sasa Kekovich | MNE | 15 |
| 19 | Bojan Rajar | SLO | 12.5 |
| 20 | Johanna Bergqvist | SWE | 10 |
| 21 | Martin Dittrich | AUT | 10 |
| 22 | Thomas Badri | FRA. | 10 |
| 23 | Jure Jerkovic | CRO | 5 |
| 24 | Ainan Orlob | GER | 5 |