Porto Cervo: On the first day of racing in the Sailing Champions League Final, the YCCS organised racing within Porto Cervo Marina, and at the conclusion of 11 races, with almost three flights completed, the Finnish team on Esbo Segelförening leads.
Switzerland’s Seglervereinigung Kreuzlingen and the Italian crew representing Aeronautica Militare are in second and third places respectively. The YCCS team, sitting in fourth place, has completed an extra race.
Today will go down in the annals as the first time that the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda has held racing inside the marina in Porto Cervo. The stadium racing provided the perfect solution to the continuing adverse weather conditions in the area, with waves of around 3 metres and 25 knot of northerly wind.
After having verified the possibility of racing within the port area, and thanks to the collaboration of the Harbour Master’s offices for Porto Cervo and Golfo Aranci, along with cooperation of Porto Cervo Marina, the first starting signal was sounded at 2.30pm.
Five hours of action on the water ensued, with the teams holding nothing back as they battled aboard the YCCS fleet of J/70 boats. On equal points at the top of the classification are the Finns of Esbo Segelförening and the Swiss crew of Seglervereinigung Kreuzlingen, both of whom notched up a win and a second place today.
Two points further back in third place is the team from Italy’s Aeronautica Militare, who posted a second and a third place. The top three have yet to complete the final race of the third flight, while the YCCS team in fourth place has completed all three races, clinching two convincing wins and a fourth place which cost them a place in the top three of the provisional classification.
Lucas Karlemo, helmsman on Esbo Segelförening commented: “Sailing inside the harbour is really nice. I like the shifty conditions, that’s what we are used to in Finland. As a Finnish club, it is an honour to be racing here in the Sailing Champions League Final. It has been a goal for many years now, so I’m happy that we made it.
“The first race was tricky, we had a really bad start, standing still on the starting line. On the last upwind we overtook six boats and finished second. In the second race we had a good start and we led that race from the beginning.”
Nicolò Bertola, helmsman of Aeronautica Militare: “This was our first time sailing inside a harbour like this. The course was really short, and we had very challenging conditions, but we enjoyed it. We finished second last year, close to winning the trophy. This year is even harder, the competition is strong. Our goal is to reach the final four.”
Racing will continue tomorrow with the first starting signal scheduled for 10 a.m. CEST. The action will be streamed live at: http://www.youtube.com/c/SAILINGChampionsLeague
