Platu 25 World Championship - Count down to Alicante

by Sabrina Bonaiti on 14 Jul 2010

Alicante - Platu 25 World Championship host 2010 Pep Portas

Platu 25 World Championship in Alicante, Spain.

The Spanish Platu 25 Season is reaching its climax after the recent success of the Spanish Championship in Barcelona (24-27 June), now the World Championship in Alicante is the most anticipated event of the Season.

A large number of crews is expected to compete in the Platu 25 World Championships from the 18th to the 24th of July which will be the pinnacle event of the year.

The most competitive crews, Nationally and Internationally, will take part in this World Championship .Great expectations are focused on the Spanish fleet, the so-called 'Invincible Armada' because of the excellent results obtained by the Spanish boats in the last World Championship in Punta Ala, Italy.

Among them, in Alicante there will be 'Bribon-Movistar' of Josep Cusì, with Marc de Antonio at helm . It has just won the title of Platu 25 Spanish Champions in Barcelona and conquered the bronze medal in the World Championship in Punta Ala last year. The boat of the Real Club Náutico de Barcelona, has got a very good chance to achieve a podium position .

For the World Championship in Alicante there will be two prominent Spanish crews: 'Mexillón de Galicia-Vilagarcia' of the brothers Carlos and Antòn Paz - that triumphed in Punta Ala last year conquering the ambitious title of 2009 Platu 25 World Champion - and 'La Revoltosa' of Jaime Pont with ,at the helm, the Snipe World Champion Axel Rodger, the fifth best boat in the last World Championship.

Other important names will be Pintos (2006 and 2007 IMS670 World Champion ), Ramón Ojea on board of 'Iberconsa-Sori' of Fernando Morillo. Other Spanish boats to keep under watch are 'Fermax' of Dani Maestre, 'Iberdrola' of Manuel Weiller (2006 World Champion) and 'Mundo Marino' of Alvaro de Haro who also obtained good results in Italy.

Around 40 Spanish crews - the half of the whole National fleet - will take part in the event: The Platu 25 Spanish fleet is the largest at the moment. It grew up very fast in the last few years becoming more and more important in the International context.

Together with the Spanish crews, on the start line in Alicante there will be about 10 Italian crews. Among them, of the most competitive are 'Brera Hotels' of Emanuele Vitrano and Alberto Wolleb, together with Nanuk' of Gianrocco Catalano, with Luigi Ravioli at the helm and 'Fight for Fighting' (Lni Monopoli) owned by De Bellis and Masi, with Alberto La Tegola at the helm.

The German Platu 25 class also will participate with about 10 boats from all over Germany. For sure, between the German boats, there will be 'Flexi' of Bogdhan, with Niklas Ganssauge at the helm. Another important German crew in Alicante will be 'Farrbar' of Jens Ahlgrimm with Stephan Moelle as a tactician, that conquered the first place at the last edition of the Primo Cup in Montecarlo. There will be also 'Amica' of Michael Haacke, 'Ciao' of Jürgen Naumann, 'Five for eight' of Rüdiger Margale, 'Halbtrocken light' of Michael Berghorn, 'Max' of Martin Gnass, 'Murtfeldt' of André Teutenberg and 'Sisu' of Jörg Kampen.

All of them will have to compete with very talented International Champions such as the Greek crew of 'Modus Vivendi – 3 Alfa' owned by Kostas Karageorgiou, with Takis Mantis at the helm: they conquered the 2008 Platu 25 World Championship in Eraklion (Greece) and came second in the 2009 World Championship in Punta Ala. So, they are getting used to the podium and they will try to contend first position this time .

On the start line in Alicante there will be 'Aramis' of the Sailart team, lead by Martin and Markus Sigrist, the two Swiss brothers who won recently the 'Kieler Woche' in the Platu 25 class. With them there will be the Swiss 'Superbüsi' of Mathias Bermejo.

Austria will be represented by 'Damaris' Team of Guenther Prummer, the President of the Austrian Platu25 Class. After the success of the Alpen Cup, involving Austria, Switzerland and Italy - two legs out of four took place just in Austria - Guenther Prummer will present in Alicante the next Platu 25 Worlds at lake Traunsee-Gmuden (Austria).

Russia will be represented by 'Nautica Sib' of Igor Bezmenov from Novosibirsk and 'Navis Vela' of Marina Kasatova. A boat also from Portugal - 'Paquito' of Rui Belchior (Ginasio Clube Naval de Faro) - and one from Finland - 'Lutfisk' of Jori Lahtonen. And 'Kuperkkeikka' of Rikku Rikuolati. There will be also two boats from France - 'Black Flag' of Christophe Chaffardon and 'Goofy of Patrick Torfou. and one from Australia.