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10 February 2005, 12:19 pm

Season Starts in South America

Soling Summer Championship

San Isidro, Argentina

The Soling season started again in South America, with the Summer championship held at the Club Nautico San Isidro last weekend. There were superb conditions for sailing the first and the second day, on Saturday there was a 1 metre swell and 15 to 17 knots of wind coming from north east and east .

But those who want to avoid the sun had their dream on Sunday with 12 to 15 knot of breeze coming from the east and south east with no swell at all.

ARG 18 Matias NOCETI, Sebastian GUERRERO and Gonzalo SERRA started the Saturday with a great performance winning both races. After bad starts in both races the American team USA 852 with Matias COLLINS, Andres EZCURRA and Bautista LAGOS had great recoveries rounding the first leeward second and kept that position in the first but in the second race they hit the last leeward mark and after completing their 360º penalty they lost a place and finished third behind ARG 31 Carlos Gozzi VALDEZ, Manolo NAVEIRA and Bernand RIBET.

Just before the first start on Sunday there was an incident between USA 852 and ARG 18, the first close hauled to the start and the second parachuting downwind who didn't alter their course until too late. The collision was not hard between the boats because USA 852 skipper was hit before the hulls hit themselves.

USA 852 was able to complete the race which they went on to win, even with skipper unable to hike or move properly. ARG 18 finished in second place and third position was really fought by Team NEXTWINDOWS and Carlos Gozzi VALDEZ.

The fight for the fifth place in the championship was hard at this moment with ARG 12 Mendez / Petrini / Miranda in a tie with ARG 11 Vernero / Campos / Estape and just one point behind ARG 8 Marreins / Blacksley / Ramayon.

The second race saw another bad start from USA 852 but also a great recovery and they finished second just after ARG 18. The surprise of the day was a superb display by ARG 11 with Nicolas VERNERO, Seru CAMPOS and M ESAPE who finished third and subsequntley climbed fifth place in the championship. Carlos Gozzi, Naveira and Ribet kept the third place in the championship despite finishing fifth in the last race.