Italians conquer RC44 Malcesine Slam Cup

by Bernard Schopfer on 14 Jul 2008
The Italian team, Armando Giulietti’s Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano, confirmed its good results from the beginning of the season and increases its lead in the RC 44 Championship Tour. Hiroshi will keep the Tour leader’s gold wheels for the next event, in Trieste, on October 7-11.

The famous Lake Garda thermal breeze didn’t show up today, forcing Race Director Peter Reggio to put an end to the event at 2:45 PM. The fleet regatta is however valid, with four races completed including yesterday’s long distance DHL Trophy.

As a consequence, Armando Giulietti’s Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano conquers the title of Continental Champion and increases its lead in the RC 44 Championship Tour. Patrick de Barros’ Banco Espirito Santo finishes second, ahead of Team Ceeref and Team Sea Dubai.

Two more events will take place before the end of the Championship Tour: the Trieste Cup, on October 7-11 and the Puerto Calero RC 44 Gold Cup, in Lanzarote, on December 10-14.

Armando Giulietti, Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano: 'Of course, we are sad that we couldn’t race today; we were very confident in our performance. All in all, we can be very happy. We have done three excellent races and have had a premature start in the first. It is a solid performance.'

Patrick de Barros, helmsman, Banco Espirito Santo: 'We are disappointed because we wanted to go out and race. But that’s life. This was a great week. Russell did a great job at the tactics, and it was great to sail this fleet regatta with him.'

Nicolas Verwilghen, helmsman, Carbon Affairs: 'It was difficult for us to sail well because we haven’t had enough time to practice, but it has been a fabulous week. All the other teams have been extremely friendly with us, and many of them have lent us material to help us get up to speed. This is really a great spirit and I am grateful to all who have helped us.'

Maciej Navrocki, Team Organika: 'It was interesting for me to sail with Philippe Presti, and to get another experience than the one I receive through Mateusz Kusznierewicz. We got a good result in the match, and obtained our first victories. We were especially happy to beat Team Hiroshi! In the future, we will carry on improving with both Philippe Presti and Mateusz. Our goal is to make it to the top five in Trieste.'

Fleet-race, final results after 4 races: (Ranking, name of team, helmsman, results, points)

1) Team Hiroshi - Città di Milano, Armando Giulietti – 6, 1, 2, 2 - 11 points
2) Team Banco Espirito Santo, Patrick de Barros – 3, 2, 6, 1 – 12 points
3) Team Ceeref, Igor Lah – 4, 5, 1, 3 - 13 points
4) Sea Dubai, Joki Hellmich - 1, 3, 5, 4 – 13 points
5) Team Beecom, Isao Mita – 5, 4, 8, 5 – 22 points
6) BMW ORACLE Racing, Larry Ellison, 2, 7, 9, 6 - 24 points
7) Team Organika, Maciej Navrocki – 8, 8, 3, 7 – 26 points
8) Team Aqua, Chris Bake – 7, 6, 4, DNF - 27 points
9) Team Carbon Affairs, Nicolas Verwilghen – 9, 9, 7, DNF - 35 point

http://www.rc44.com/