The
start of this "World Premiere" for the new Olympic Discipline the
European Mixed offshore Championship take off with a nice sailing in
front of the Iconic San Marco square in the very center of Venice. An
interested audience was welcoming the seven teams including several
Olympic medals, Figaro sailors, ocean race veterans and offshore
sailors, that took the start of 187nms distance race just outside the
entrance of the Laguna di Venezia in a solid 12 knts north westerly
breeze and nice flat water.
Despite
the two different strategies the fleet arrived almost packed at the
rounding of the first mark after about 10 hours from the start. It
was really nice to see how close is the offshore racing when sailed in
one design boats.
Everything
was “new”, included the boats but the passion of the sailors , the
mnas, the class, the boatyard and the organizers was enough to make
evrything going really well
Condition
at night were breezy (in the range of 30 knts with some bumpy sea) but
the south direction wind was helping the fleet to keep the race on a
fast track.
All boats performed well with no fatal damages and all seven teams competed very closely till the rush final.
You
can watch the tracking using the “replay” tag on the web
page www.ssi.events to see how the fleet, after reaching the mark of
"San Giovanni in pelago", a very beautiful rock with a light house on
the top on the Croatian costs, headed to the finishing line in Trieste
right in front of the Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano.
The
Austrian team was building a nice leading right after the start sailing
as first towards the South wind that was foreseen in the
weatherforecast. They rounded the Island of Susak in first followed by
the the belgian Team the france and the Australian of Liz Wardley.
This
top four boats sailed in a close pack in the following light breeze
along the Croatia and Slovenian shore until a partially rebuilding
breeze brought them to the finishing line in Trieste stretching a little
bit the fleet. The leadership of the austrian was the becoming solid
and they crossed the line at 2:00 am becoming the first European
Champions of this new discipline! At 2:36 arrived the Belgian Team
getting the silver medal, at 2:43 the Australians and 2:48 the france
teams ended as sbronze medallist.
Team
moored in front of the hospitality truck of the European Championship
and the Nastro Rosa 2020, the Italian Sailing Tour that will be sailed
in 2020 for the Mixed offshore Class, that was positioned at the
entrance of the Barcolana Village were all the dozens of thousand
visitors per day found all the info of the event.
Comments
from the sailors have been enthhusiastic for this very first "premiere"
of this new Olympic discipline, said Riccardo Simoneschi, of SSI and
Race Manager of the event: "there is a lot of talking about this new
discipline in the sailing world and I also was, personally, really
interested in making a very first practical experience. I think we have
learned a lot and seen the high potential of this discipline for
sailing, despite many details that still have to be sorted out to make
it working at the best. I'm positive and think that like every new idea,
after a controversial starting, will find the right balance in the
World of Sailing and in the Olympic if WS will be smart to make the
right adjustments to the actual Olympic program. Many thanks to FIV,
Eurosaf, YC Venezia ( Hosting Yacht Club) and Società Velica di Barcola e
Grignano for their support, to Marina di Sant'Elena for the logistic
hospitality in Venice, to Barcolana for the hospitality in trieste and
to the L30 Class for the effort put forward to be ready in time.”
Prize
Giving has been held Saturday morning at 11 am in the Barcolana Village
at the Prosecco Doc Hospitality in the beautiful and crowded Piazza
dell’Unità in presence of a nice audience.
FINAL RANKING
1st > 🇦🇹 TEAM AUSTRIA 🥇Europeans Gold MedalLisa Berger / Christian Kargl 2nd >🇧🇪 TEAM BELGIUM 🥈Europeans Silver Medal
Sophie Faguet / Jonas Gerckens 3rd > 🇦🇺 TEAM AUSTRALIA
Liz Wardley / Alberto Sonino 4th > 🇫🇷 TEAM FRANCE 🥉Europeans Bronze Medal
Mathilde Geron / Pierre Leboucher 5th > 🇪🇸 TEAM SPAIN
Ana Santamaria / Guillermo Altadill 6th > 🇺🇸 TEAM USA
Barbara Karpinska / Peter Beker 7th > 🇮🇹 TEAM ITALY
Giovanna Valsecchi / Andrea Pe
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