Melges 24 European Series - Great fleet to race in Riva del Garda

by International Melges 24 Class Association on 21 May 2015 Melges 24 European Sailing Series - 44 boats from 14 nations pre-registered for the third event in Riva del Garda considered also as the Audi tron Sailing Series Act three 'The King of the Lake' organised by B.Plan Sport and Events (BPSE) in cooperation with Melges Europe and International Melges 24 Class Association (IM24CA).

The event will be hosted by Fraglia Vela Riva Yacht Club and will take place on May 21-24. This is the last event for around fifty Melges 24 boats to race together before the important World Championship taking place in Middelfart, Denmark around in a one month time.

After two well organised Melges 24 European Sailing Series events in Portoroz, Slovenia in March and in Balatonfüred, Hungary last weekend the International Melges 24 Class Association has welcomed this opportunity to come and race in Riva del Garda associated by the automotive brand. This beautiful venue has always been one of the most favourite sailing venues among the monohull sailing boats produced by the Melges Performance Sailboats.

In July 2014 the 46 Melges 24 teams from eleven nations all over Europe felt the great hospitality of the Fraglia Vela Riva Yacht Club and this year the event supported by Audi tron promises to be even more enjoyable. Races will be supported by the skilled managing staff of the Fraglia Vela Riva, races will be starting off on Friday and concluding on Sunday.

Jens Altern Wathne, the Chairman of the International Melges 24 Class Association, is delighted to see 44 teams from 14 nations competing in Riva. 'Italy has a long history of good Melges 24 sailors therefore Riva event is very important for IM24CA and we are looking forward to see more Italian teams. This event is also a joint sailing series with the fabulous Audi tron Sailing Series. I hope we can continue this great relationship next season. I wish a fantastic regatta to all teams!'

Among the pre-registered teams we have quite a number of big names entered from the international sailing world. Both winners of 2014 Melges 24 European Sailing Series ranking, Riccardo Simoneschi's Audi tron (ITA-840) in Pro division and Robert Bakoczy's FGF Sailing Team (HUN-728) in Pro-Am division; current leader of the series after two events Miles Quinton's Gill Race Team (GBR-694) in Pro division and Oleg Dyvinets' Marusia (UKR-819) in Pro-Am division.

Also we'll see in Garda the 2014 European Champion in Corinthian division - Tõnu Tõniste's Lenny (EST-790) and Martin Trcka's Rodop/ICZ (CZE-704), second best Pro team in 2014 European Sailing Series ranking. And the list is still growing. The countries represented are Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, The Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine.

The current rankings of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series 2015 have been published in overall and in Pro-Am division after two events in Portoroz, Slovenia in March and in Balatonfüred, Hungary.

In this ranking, every race sailed counts and worst scores will be excluded after every six races completed. With two events, we have 17 races sailed in the series and two worst results have been discarded. 27 boats from 8 nations have got their ranking points so far.

In overall (Pro) ranking the current leader with 65 points is Miles Quinton's Gill Race Team (GBR-694) with Geoff Garveth and Marshall King in helm followed by Kalman Rozsnyay's FGF Sailing Team (HUN-728) helmed by Robert Bakoczy with 86 points in total. On the third position is Peter Czegai's Jedi Business (HUN-481) with 87 points.

The leader of Pro-Am division with 39 points is Oleg Dyvinets' Marusia (UKR-819), with 100 points is following Miles Quinton's Gill Race Team (GBR-694) with King Marshall in helm and on the third position with 113 points is Attila Bujaky's Hod (HUN-589). See the Pro-Am ranking

Next ranking points will be collected from the 3rd event in Riva del Garda.