49ers at Sail Melbourne International Regatta Overall

by Di Pearson 19 Jan 2002 14:11 GMT

ITALY’S SIBELLO BROTHERS WIN 49ER SKIFF CLASS AT SAIL MELBOURNE REGATTA

Regatta winners Pietro & Gianfranco Sibello Photo © Jeff Crowe/The Sport Library

Ranked 7th in the world, Italy’s Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello finished 3rd in today’s final 49er race at the Sail Melbourne Regatta to take out the Championships.

The brothers won five of the fifteen races to clinch the title, finishing with 25 points to take the series from Australia’s representatives at the Sydney Olympics, Chris Nicholson and Michael Blackburn, who finished on 32 points.

While the brothers spend their time racing on the 49er circuit, Nicholson, who represented Australia in the 49er class, and Blackburn who won Bronze in the Laser class, have not raced together for eight months, and were only into the second month of their partnership.

Nicholson took time from shore leave in the Volvo Round The World Race, racing aboard Amer Sports One, to race in Sail Melbourne Regatta, and while it took them a while to get back up to speed, they also had five wins and five top three placings.

Not to take away from the Italians who sailed brilliantly in both light and heavy airs here - and believe me when I say heavy, Port Phillip Bay is very windy and the seas do a good impression of Bass Strait. They also had a bit of bad luck early on, breaking gear, forcing them out of two races.

Third place went to another medallist from the Sydney Olympics, Melbourne’s Mark Turnbull, who won Gold in the 470 Mens class. He sailed with a former sailing partner, Nick Partridge and the two have re-established the partnership to try for the Olympics in the 49er class. They finished with 49 points.

Overall Results: (15 races, 2 discards)

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R9	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	Pts
1	ITA6	Pietro Sibello	Gianfranco Sibello	IT	2	(19F)	(19S)	1	1	2	1	3	1	2	1	3	3	2	3	25
2	11	Michael Blackburn	Chris Nicholson	AU	-7	1	4	7	-10	3	2	2	2	1	3	1	1	4	1	32
3	AUS416	Mark Turnbull	Nick Partridge	AU	(19O)	3	1	2	2	4	4	6	6	5	-8	2	5	3	6	49
4	JPN665	Kenji Nakamura	Masato Takaki	JP	1	2	-9	4	4	-10	3	4	5	6	5	4	2	5	5	50
5	IRL705	Tom Fitzpatrick	Euan McNichol	IR	3	6	3	-8	5	1	5	1	4	8	2	5	7	(19O)	2	52
6	AUS678	Emmett Lazich	Carter Jackson	AU	6	4	5	5	3	-8	6	5	3	7	6	-15	4	1	4	59
7	AUS674	Jason Beebe	Phillip Manning	AU	4	5	2	3	-7	5	7	7	7	3	4	6	6	-8	7	66
8	AUS007	Ben Tardrew	Marcus Tardrew	AU	5	8	-13	6	6	-12	9	10	8	4	11	10	9	9	8	103
9	AUS441	Cristian Staal	Angus Tapp	AU	-12	7	6	10	8	9	10	8	10	10	-12	7	12	11	9	117
10	AUS125	Kirwan Robb	Ryan Griexe	AU	11	10	12	13	(19F)	6	13	11	11	12	7	13	8	7	-14	134
11	AUS433	Frazer Read	Justin Wells	AU	10	-16	7	14	11	11	8	9	9	13	9	9	-15	12	13	135
12	AUS203	Rob Gough	Mathew Cubit	AU	9	13	10	9	12	7	12	13	12	-16	-15	14	14	15	11	151
13	AUS206	Nick Behrens	Andre Declerck	AU	15	11	14	11	9	14	-16	12	15	14	-16	8	16	6	15	160
14	AUS224	Brendan Garner	Ben O'brien	AU	14	9	11	12	(19F)	(19C)	14	14	13	11	10	11	13	13	16	161
15	RUS7	Ilya Ermakov	Maxim Logoutenko	RU	8	14	8	-16	13	13	15	-16	14	15	13	16	11	10	12	162
16	AUS436	Glenn Raphael	Duncan Macleod	AU	16	12	15	15	(19F)	(19C)	11	15	16	9	14	12	10	14	10	169
17	AUS213	Hamish Stone	Marc Ryan	AU	13	15	16	(19F)	(19S)	19C	19C	19C	19C	19C	19C	19C	19C	19C	19C	234
18	AUS417	David Robinson	Ben Jordan	AU	(19S)	(19S)	19S	17	19F	19S	19S	19F	19F	17	17	19S	19C	16	17	236