Silva Wins

Silva (ITA) won the Mumm 30 European Championship that concluded yesterday in Medemblik, The Netherlands. Second finished Cecchetti (ITA), and third Sarsfield (GBR).

Friday morning we had a delay of 2 and a half hours because of no wind. Around noon some wind arrived, but it was too unstable to race. In the first race all the favorites sailed the wrong corner and ended up at the back of the field. Cheyenne Unicredito(ITA 13078) made a perfect series of 2nd, 3th,6th and 1 st place that day. They received 3 bottles of Mumm Champage and a first prize cup for the day.

On Saturday the winds where heavy at 15-25 knots and that gave some boats problems at the top mark. Because the Ijsselmeer is not very deep the spinnakers are under great pressure before the boats are up to speed , up to 10-13 knots downwind. The Panter AMG was a bit slow at first but had a perfect day of racing under these circumstances with a 1st, 4th and two 2nd places they settled for 3rd place. Allina had two first places, but they whre already too far behind to be a threat for the top three positions.

Sunday dawned with 10-15 knots of wind, and in the first race a shift of 35 degrees to the first top mark made some dreams scatter. Allina, Minolta (NED 6553) and No Contact( NED 523) were still in the race for 3 rd overall but all ended in the back of the field, thus dropping to 5th 6th and 7 th overall.

With a very consistent series of top 10 positions the Italians from Cheyenne Unicredito took the Mumm 30 European Champions Trophy 2002 back to Italy. With only two top 3 endings but otherwise consistent in all races The Baqua Finnat( ITA 3036) ended 2 nd . 3 rd place overall went to the British Panter AMG. With 4 Italians in the Top 10 they proved to be very good, and could be a real threat for the Americans in Annapolis September 24-29 for the Mumm 30 World Championship 2002.

Results