IRC European Championships at Yacht Club Sanremo - Overall
by Carla Anselmi 30 Jun 2019 14:02 BST
23-29 June 2019
French Farr 36 Absolutely II, skippered by former Finn sailor Yves Ginoux, Union Nationale Course Au Large's vice-president and flying the colours of CNTL Marseille, is the IRC Europeans overall winner.
The championship, organised by Yacht Club Sanremo, that gathered over 40 crews from all over the continent for the week, ended in grand style on Saturday with three superb races, sailed in true "champagne conditions".
If Friday the very light wind temporarily halted the event, forcing the organisers to cancel the coastal race, on Saturday the Gulf of Sanremo guaranteed perfect conditions to sail three, very tight races that crowned the new European champions. Undoubtedly a dayto remember.
A good morning westerly of around 8 knots that progressively increased to reach over 20 knots in the early afternoon, enabled the Race Committee to launch and complete three races on windward/leeward courses of 8.5 miles for the bigger boats' group and 6.5 for the smaller ones. The much contested and physically tough races, in some classes consolidated the leaders' position in other completely changed the scoreboard based n seven races with a discard.
The overall title, calculated on the accumulated points in all the classic, went to Absolutely II skippered by Yves Ginoux, that also won the Corinthian trophy and class IRC 3, scoring an impressive triple for an owner-driver and mostly familiar crew. The silver in the overall was awarded to another French team, GP42 Confluence Sopra skippered by Jean-Pierre Joly, whilst Italy's Sarchiapone Fuoriserie, the Italia 998 owned by Gialuigi Dubbini jumped on the third step of the podium.
"It's been a great week, we had the most varied conditions, breezy days like today and others with very light wind, when you have to stay focused and being consistent. The fleet was not that big, but the level was sure very high." Said an elated Yves Ginoux. "I was in Sanremo before, but only for the Giraglia's finishes, this was my first time here for a whole regatta, it's a great sailing venue. We enjoyed it, had fun and look forward to be coming back soon."
Class podiums:
IRC 0 - 6 entries
1 Team Vision Future - Jean-Jacques Chaubard - TP52 - France - YC de Toulon
2 Freccia Rossa - Vadim Yakimenko - TP52 - Russia - YC Mosca
3 Rowdy Too - Howard Dyer - TP52 - British Virgin Island YC
IRC 1 - 10 entries
1 Confluence Sopra - Jean-Piere Joly - GP 42 - France - S.N. Marseille
2 Bewild - Renzo Grottesi - Club Swan 42 - Italy - C.V. Portocivitanova
3 Ange Transparent - Valter Pizzoli - Swan 45 - Italy - Yacht Club de Monaco
IRC 2 - 5 entries
1 Sayann - Paolo Cavarocchi - First 40 - Italy - LNI Anzio
2 Obsession - Mario Rosselo - First 45 - Italy - LNI Savona
3 Vito 2 - Gian Marco Magrini - A40 - Italy - SNST
IRC 3 - 14 entries
1 Absolutely II - Yves Ginoux - Farr 36 - France - CNTL Marseille
2 Sarchiapone Fuoriserie - Gianluigi Dubbini - IY 998 - Italy -Yacht Club Sanremo
3 Chenapan 3 di Gilles Caminade - A35 - France - Union National Course au Large
IRC 4 - 7 entries
1 Alkaid - Christophe Heurtault - JPK 10.10 - France - CNTL Marseille
2 Faster 2 - Marcello Focosi - Italy - First 34.7 - CN San Vincenzo
3 Racing Dee - Jean-Luc Hamon - France - JPK 10.10 - Club Nautique de Toulon
Find full results here