Melges 24 European Sailing Series 2023 - Strambapapà is the new Melges 24 Italian champion
by International Melges 24 Class Association 23 Jul 14:23 PDT
21-23 July 2023
The Melges24 Tour Act 2 - Italian National Championship, an event organized by Fraglia Vela Riva and the Italian Melges 24 Class, valid also as the sixth event of the freshly renewed Melges 24 European Sailing Series, concluded today with the completion of an eighth-race series and a lot of fun for all the crews involved.
To celebrate the overall success has been the reigning Melges 24 European Champion Strambapapà ITA689: owned and helmed by former Italian Olympian Michele Paoletti, crewing with his wife Giovanna Micol, also former Olympian; Davide Bivi, Giulia Pignolo and Alexander Harej, inflicted a gap of seven points by German team - Michael Tarabochia's White Room GER677 with Luis Tarabochia at the helm, who gave that chance to the winner only today. The Hungarians of Chinook by Akos Csolto completed the overall podium, protagonists of a performance that helps them climb positions in the overall classification of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series.
"It has been a great event, made unique by the fact that we still sailed with our usual crew of family and friends. We are really happy: we can't stop smiling. We are sorry because we missed the World Championship in Middelfart, but we really couldn't wait to come and have fun on what is one of the best monotypes ever built in a well-organized and super competitive class," was the comment by Michele Paoletti.
Second and third overall, White Room and Chinook, were awarded as top boats of the Corinthian division, with the Germans scoring first.
Third place went to former Corinthian World Champion Taki 4 ITA778, owned by Marco Zammarchi and helmed by Niccolò Bertola sailing with Giacomo Fossati, Giovanni Banneta and Lorenzo Di Carlo: the Italian team was also awarded as the winner of the Corinthian Italian Melges 24 Champion 2023.
Luis Tarabochia, the helm of the best Corinthian team White Room was very content and happy about the team's performance. "It was very close racing, we had great races on the first two days and managed to climb to the top position in this very strong fleet. Today was quite hard for us and we couldn't perform so well to keep our leadership. But we can't complain either. Our efforts and contribution pay off after many years by now. Finishing the Worlds as the second-best Corinthian team sixth in the overall ranking, has given us confidence in our performance. We are happy!"
Besides Michael and Luis Tarabochia in the White Room team are sailing Marco Tarabochia, Sebastian Bühler and Mathy Tom.
Current standings of the Melges 24 European Sailing Series after six events held see Miles Quinton Gill Race Team GBR694, who finished Riva event fifth, topping the ranking only 0.5 points ahead of Hungarian Chinook and 0.4 points ahead of German Peter Karrie's Nefeli, while the new World Champion, American Drew Freides' Pacific Yankee is on the fourth and White Room fifth, with 0.65 points margin ahead of Estonian Lenny by Tõnu Tõniste rounding the Top 6.
The next events of the renewed Melges 24 European Sailing Series will be the Norwegian Nationals in Kristiansand on August 25-27 and the next Act of the Italian Melges 24 Tour Coppa Italia - Franco Rao Memorial in Rimini on September 1-3.
Please note also that the venues of the Croatian events in October have been swopped, giving the host of the 2024 Melges 24 Europeans - Sailing Club Split - a chance to host the event of the European Series.
Croatian Melges 24 Class, as the co-organiser of the three last events of the European series, will organise free outdoor storage for the boats between the October regattas and the Croatian Championship in November. Also, regarding the details of the winter storage in Croatia, the details will follow shortly.
Results and Notice Board available here.
Event website at the Fraglia Vela Riva website.