Persico 69F Revolution Cup - Overall
by Wordpower srl 12 Aug 10:12 PDT
10-12 August 2020
Persico 69F Revolution Cup © Persico 69F / Studio Borlenghi
It's Dutch Sail Orange (van Stekelenborg-Houtman-Becker-Asbeek Brusse) who is the winner of the first Persico 69F Revolution, for teams Under 25.
The young Netherlands team, whose four members are vying to be chosen by their yacht club to be the official team at the Youth America's Cup, in a list of eight, have won the finals against CNVA Sailing Team (Botticini-Colannino-Salvà), RHKYC Team Agiplast and Birikkine.
After three days of racing the leaderboard has seen 16 teams and 14 flights, almost always with a medium-low wind, with today's 7am start looking for the Peler required to finish the crucial races and complete the long-awaited final.
The young Dutch guys - who lost the first match, going down the table - fully believed in themselves, catching up race by race and defeating team Dutch Sail Blue (the other half of their team in training for the YAC) today in flight 1. Such a crescendo has brought them to victory at the final thanks to a flawless tactic and despite the half point penalty they got at the beginning.
"It was teamwork," said the helmsman Lars van Stekelenborg, "the mental attitude of the team made the difference today. These races have a very high level, and they showed us that if we want to arrive prepared in New Zealand we have to push a lot. Last race was hard: there was low wind, we had to think about the tactics and create a good gap to be sure to win; we found ourselves in the right position at the right moment, and we took full advantage of it."
Second place went to the Italian crew, the CNVA Sailing Team: Ettore Botticini and Federico Colannino, with Simone Salvà. They won all the races except the last one. "In the final," said Botticini, "we started well, we'd been conservative to avoid any penalty and we attacked when it was the right moment: from the tactical point of view Dutch people were better than us."
Third place goes to RHKYC Team Agiplast: the young sailors of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (Gregor-Jacobsen-Cantero-Morton) enchanted everyone with their story, the great professionalism, the desire to emerge. The team - in training for the YAC - has a long and consistent program of training ahead.
"We're happy to be in the final and to be on the podium," say the young athletes from Hong Kong, "but we had the chance to win, and we missed it. Even this is training, mainly because we've been sailing on this boat for just four days. These races are very important to lead, the formula does not forgive mistakes, and this is the best way to race."
It was a positive outcome for the organizers: "The Persico 69F Revolution," said Dede De Luca, "is an amazing format, exalted by the enthusiasm and the competitive desire of these young athletes. The guys had fun, wind conditions required the teams to have great skills: manage foils, sail changes, and most of all to have great tactics, as we have seen in the last race. On the podium we have the best, with no doubt."