Oppies and Melges 20s in Monaco

Plus a must-see photo gallery from master of the glass Carlo Borlenghi

150 sailors gathered this weekend in Monaco, which is turning out to be the 'place to be' at the very beginning of the sailing season.

Two international regattas were held:

- The Monaco Optimist Team Race, organised in collaboration with FxPro and Eventica Communications
- The Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series (Part 3), a winter programme of races dedicated to monohull offshore sailboats
as well as the training of the Monaco Laser team, supervised by the national French coach, Lionel Pellegrino.

In Optimists, the Gstaad Yacht Club won the competition for the 3rd year in a row, in front of the Yacht Club Italiano. The Yacht Club de Monaco finished 3rd, only one point behind.

In the very competitive Melges 20 fleet, Manfredi Vianini Tolomei, the International Class President won with a 7 point advantage over Nakhimov Racing, the provisional leader of the Championship, which will attend the Primo Cup-Trophée Credit Suisse over 31 January 31-2 February and 6-9 February) as the favourite.

The two mains classes of the Yacht Club de Monaco were also competing in Port Hercules with victory going to Ian Ilsley, the runners up at the European Championship, in the J/24s and Michel Boussard winning the SB20s.

The Monaco Optimist Team Race

48 young sailors, aged between 11 and 15, from nine different nations, raced Optimists provided by Erplast (the teams only had their own sails). After three days of team racing, the Gstaad Yacht Club won at the last moment.

“It was very difficult," said Morgan Lauber, a member of the Swiss team, which comprised the five best Optimist sailors of the country. "It rained, and we had shifty winds. We finally managed to win because we have a good team and we have worked a lot. It’s a very good thing for us to sail in Monaco and to exchange with the other teams.”

The Yacht Club Italiano, neck to neck with the Swiss, finished second behind the Gstaad Yacht Club on tie break.

Final Results
1st: Gstaad Yacht Club, SUI 10 pts
2nd: Yacht Club Italiano, ITA 10 pts
3rd : Yacht Club de Monaco, MON 9 pts
4th: Yacht Club Aquitaine, FRA 8 pts
5th: Bundefjorden Sailing Club, NOR 6 pts
6th: A.R.M. Urla Sailing Club, TUR 6 pts
7th: Yacht Club San Remo, ITA 5 pts
8th: Circolo Vela di Torbole, ITA 4 pts
9th: Seven Feet Yacht Club, RUS 4 pts
10th: St Petersburg Yacht Club, RUS 2 pts
11th: NC Palilula, SER 1 pt
12th: Royal Cork Yacht Club, IRL 1 pt

Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series (Melges 20) – Italians dominate

The podium was only confirmed after the last race of the last day. After eight races (seven counting), when the Italians on Maolca won with a seven point lead over Nakhimov Racing and 15 ahead of Red October, that completed an impressive rise over the course of the last two races.

After this third event of the series, the provisional overall leader is Nakhimov Racing, widing the gap with Pirogovo Sailing and Red October, skippered by Artem Kuznekov, three points behind second.

“In Russia, we don’t sail - we sail everywhere else in the world but not in Russia," said Synergy's Valentin Zavadnikov, who competes in the top monohull classes such as the TP52 and RC44. "We have thought about different places, like Majorca or Lanzarote, but Monaco and its Yacht Club was the perfect place for us. We are not far from here, the airport is very close and the infrastructures of the Yacht Club de Monaco allow us to be regular in our results. Melges 20 are amazing boats. This year, we have around ten teams coming from Eastern Europe for the Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series.”

Final results(6 races, 5 counted):

1st Maolca, Manfredi Vianini Tolomei (ITA) 12 pts
2nd Nakhimov Racing, Ivan Babish (MON) 14 pts
3 rd Bombarda, Andrea Pozzi (ITA) 20 pts
4st Pirogovo Sailing, Andrey Boyko 22 pts
5 st SBP Yacht Club, Vladimir Liubomirov 25 pts

Pics from Carlo Borlenghi/www.borlenghi.com