Champions decided at 2017 Tornado Europeans

by International Tornado Class Association on 24 Jul 2017 The Hellenic Police team of Nikolaos Mavros and Alexandros Tagaropoulos, GRE 11 had their goal set on becoming European Tornado Open champions for the second time in a row and they did it!

After finishing first in 6 out of 8 races no one can challenge their sovereignty throughout the cup!

Nikolaos, the golden helm commented: “I am very pleased with the organisation and of course our results, winning for the second time in a row. Many many thanks to the people who worked in order to make this event so successful. Looking forward to the worlds!”

Great racing days for the Swiss teams also.. Second place overall goes to Marcel and Joerg Steiner. The two brothers scored only top five results proving they are so well trained, especially in these conditions.

Third place goes to Martin Rusterholz and Michael Gloor, the winners of the Swiss nationals. The day seemed to be very promising for them after scoring a bullet in the first race. Michael said: ” The first race, we had a very good start matching a tack right after the committee boat and managed to go to the right side with a lot of speed, arriving at the top mark in second with the other Swiss just in front of us. We caught them just after the leeward gate and achieved the total lead till the end”.

It is Jürgen Jentsch, president of the ITA and his wife Sarah Jentsch who are now the gold medalist in the Mixed Category! The first day was difficult for them, which made them convince themselves to sail better race by race to the top!

Second mixed, a crew that’s wandering around the pedestral many years now, Czech Zdenek Pavlis and his daughter Michaela Pavlisova. The young girl is sailing the Tornado since she was 12!!

Third mixed is the Salzman’s, Dietmar and Silvia who enjoy so much this father and daughter cooperation! So it’s Silvia’s day today as she will celebrate her birthday day with a European medal!

A new entrance in our class won the impressions and respect from everybody. The youth team of Yoann Trecul and Thomas Ferrand from France had an amazing performance despite some bad times in three of the races. The crew jumped to the Tornado after some F18 titles and they seem very strong, smart and promising contenders for next year’s events.

Roberta Righetti, the president of the Race committee mentioned: “We were lucky for having enough time to complete all the races. There were some problems as the wind was very shifty with 40 or 50 degrees changes so we tried to put the mark in the middle and let the sailors choose what they have to do. I noticed that the competitors are very correct because there was only one OCS who came back to start again. Some sailors retired when needed and as appropriate and came back to start again. This is my first time with the Tornado class but I like very much because the competitors are very friendly and correct responding to the rules. I would love to work with them again in future events.”

The ITA wants to thank officially the organizing committee, the race committee, the volunteers, the Centro Vela Dervio and the FIV for their aid in making this championship successful. It was our pleasure to sail in the lake.

Sails are set to Thessaloniki, Greece for the World championship starting on the 28th of August.

See you there!

Results