Platu 25 Worlds - Final report plus images from the day's racing

by Sabrina Bonaiti on 4 Oct 2009
Platu 25 World Championship final day's racing report.

After 12 very competitive regattas and after five exciting days, the new Platu 25 World Champion is 'Vilagarcia', the Spanish team from Galizia with Anton Paz at the helm. Every body expected a play off between the Spanish teams 'Vilagarcia' and 'Tuypan Caixanova Men' of Marcos Perez e Roy Alonso that yesterday was second in the Gold list with the same score of 'Volagarcia'. But 'Tuypan' slip to the 5th place and there were some surprises in the final ranking list.

Today there were two races; one at around 11.30 and the other at 15.30. And for some crews it was the day of the revenge. First of all for the Greek team of 'Modus Vivendi – Alfa 3' – 2008 Platu 25 World Champions – that could go up, concluding at the second place in the Gold list. Today they were very brilliant and they finished with a marvellous first place in the last race. The Greeks partially broke the Spanish dominion: without them, 6 Spanish teams would occupy the first 6 places.

Third place is for an other Spanish: 'Bribon-Movistar' of José Cusì who, for the second consecutive year, could conquer a place on the World Championship podium. From the 4th to the 7th place, the dominion is completely Spanish with 'La Revoltosa' of Jaime Pont (4th position), 'Tuypan Caixanova Men' (5th position),'Central Lechera Asturiana' (6th position) and 'Iberdrola' (7th position). The German team of 'Flexi' of Manfred Bogdahn concluded 8th.

First of the Italians (in 9th position in the Gold list) is the Platu 25 Italian Champion 'Nanuk' of Gianrocco Catalano with Luigi Ravioli at the helm. They received a prize from Lexus, the official sponsor of the 2009 Platu 25 World Championship. The Japanese car factory organized last night a wonderful cocktail dinner. During the party, the Yacht Club of Punta Ala gave a prize to the Olympic Champion Alessandra Sensini who was there for the Platu 25 World Championship.

It was a pity for the 14th place of 'Brera Hotels' of Emanuele Vitrano and Alberto Wolleb with Sandro Montefusco at the helm. 'Brera Hotels' could be on the podium but the Italian team paid three disqualifications in the regattas 2,3 and 4 because of irregularities in the weight certificate. The boat had to compete with extra weight, losing many positions. Yesterday it could go the Gold list up (6-11-3 yesterday in the regattas) but no hope for 'Brera Hotels' to arrive to the podium.

Today is the last day of a fantastic World Championship, with 92 boats coming from 14 different Countries of three Continents. The crews competed in a very exited atmosphere and the agonistic level was very high, 'We are very satisfied' said Edoardo Barni, the President of the Italian Platu 25 Class. 'It was a World Champioship really appreciated by everybody with exited regattas competed in all the different wind and wave conditions. We host crews from everywhere, even from New Zealand (Oceanbridge) and from Japan (the crew of 'Bros' of Noafumi Kamei). We expect that for the next Platu 25 World Championship there will be 150 boats'.

Full results at: http://www.platu25.com
Photos: Pier Giovanni Carta www.papernew.com
www.platu25.it