2016 Melges 20 Sailing Series - Tight at the top in Porto Ercole
by Melges 20 on 8 May 2016
Matteo Marenghi Vaselli - 2016 Melges 20 Sailing Series Barracuda Communications
2016 Melges 20 Sailing Series - The Melges 20 fleet of forty teams representing nine nations battled more light air conditions on day two of the second act of the Sailing Series® Melges 20. Three additional races were completed with overnight leader Alessandro Rombelli at the helm of STIG hanging on to the lead by a thread.
Michael Illbruck's Pinta had a satisfying day on the water settling for second place overall on the points tiebreaker. Portovenere champion Richard Davies on Section 16 made it a 'moving' day to finish in third.
As if the light air conditions weren't challenging enough to deal with, adding three races to the scoreboard also meant that each team would discard their worst score. This shuffled the deck of players setting up for an intense showdown on Sunday.
The star of the day clearly was Matteo Marenghi Vaselli on Raya acquiring bullets in Race Four and Six.
In race four, Marenghi Vaselli took the early lead to earn a start-to-finish win ahead of a hard-charging Illbruck (second) and Davies (third).
The second race of the day, Race Five in the eight-part series featured some grand highlights. Apart from the very competitive upper rim of teams - winner Rombelli, Alexander Ezhkov on Pirogovo Yacht Club, and Corrado Agusta on Customly, the #Melges20Next team which includes youth duo Matteo Capurro and Matteo Poppu, got on the good foot to take an awesome fourth place finish. Wes Whitmyer Jr.'s Slingshot (sixth) and Jan Kuchar's Aloha (seventh) had great top ten finishes as well.
Pumped up and on the upswing, the Capurro/Poppu team gave a repeat performance in Race Six coming up with another top five finish.
The final showdown will happen on Sunday where two more races are scheduled to take place. With the points spread so tight, the Porto Ercole trophy is still very much up for grabs!
Top Ten Results (Preliminary - After Six Races. One Discard)
1.) Alessandro Rombelli, STIG; 3-2-1-[22]-1-16 = 23
2.) Michael Illbruck, Pinta; 4-9-[10]-2-5-3 = 23
3.) Richard Davies, Section 16; [20]-1-6-3-16-2 = 28
4.) Alexander Ezhkov, Pirogovo Yacht Club; 9-[12]-9-4-2-5 = 29
5.) Corrado Agusta, Customly; 2-[13]-7-6-3-13 = 31
6.) Guido Miani, Out of Reach; 1-5-4-[19]-13-10 = 33
7.) Igor Rytov, Russian Bogatyrs; [22]-3-5-13-10-6 = 37
8.) Matteo Marenghi Vaselli, Raya; [26]-4-18-1-14-1 = 38
9.) Lauro Bonora, Camay; 10-8-3-9-[17]-9 = 39
10.) Achille Onorato, Mascalzone Latino Jr.; 5-[22]-2-21-12-7 = 47
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