Nacra 17 European Championship - Mandy Mulder and Coen de Koning win!

by Edwin Lodder on 25 Aug 2013 At the first Nacra 17 European Championship 2013, after a very exciting Medal Race the Dutch team Mandy Mulder and Coen de Koning wins. After some postponement because of the lack of wind the final Medal race with the top-10 teams could start in the afternoon round 02.30 PM.

The top-4 after 12 races with at that moment first the French team Francois Morvan and Marie Riou (41 points), second the Suisse team Matias Buhler and Nathalie Brugger (41 points), third the French team Moana Valreaux and Manon Audinet (43 points), fourth the Dutch team Mandy Mulder and Coen de Koning (46 points) was very close together and the results (counting double) of the Medal-race should make the final results.

In a light and shifty wind the Austrian team Thomas Zajac and Tanja Frank won the medal race, with second the Dutch team Mandy Mulder and Coen de Koning and third the French team Franck Cammas and Sophie de Turckheim. This changed the overall final results completely:

first NED 46 Mandy Mulder and Coen de koning (50 points)
2nd FRA 65 Moana Valreaux and Manon Audinet (53 points)
3rd FRA 43 Francois Morvan and Marie Riou (55 points)

Mandy and Coen look back on a very difficult and heavy sailing week with a very strong field competitors,13 sailed races, one lost protest and an OCS (to early start). Just only a few weeks this team is sailing together and did their first event now in this combination. Both have a very strong background (Mandy from Olympic Matchracing and Coen has been World Champion F18). With this result they both are very happy, learned a lot and both look forward with confidence.

At Tuesday August 20th the first Nacra 17 Europeans started with 44 teams from 17 countries. The event is hosted by Centro Vela Dervio. For all competitors this was a very good sailing week to compete and learn a lot in this new challenging class. Within 9 months the class and sailors are developing very fast and the number of boats worldwide is now already over 200. Lake Como was a perfect location to host this first Nacra 17 European Championship. During the week it was excellent sailing weather with 13 sailed races.

It was a pitty that the last day finished during the prizegiving with heavy rain. But the organization and volunteers of Centro Velo Dervio did a great job and made this first Nacra 17 European Championship a great success.

For all results and images see: Nacra 17 Class website and Centroveladervio website