Monaco's golden breeze puts Bertheau back into the lead at European Tour

Young French skipper Simon Bertheau struck back at Monaco Match Race to regain the lead of the European tour with a flawless victory of the Round Robin, leaving local skipper Francois Brenac on second place.

Italian Rocco Attilli, bronze medallist at the Youth European Championship finished on third place ahead of Austria’s Helmut Czasny.

The first Monaco Match Race, perfectly organized the Yacht Club de Monaco with support of the Monegasque J/70 Association, saw three days of spectacular racing just in front of the world famous landscape of Monte Carlo. Bright sunshine and a light to medium but steady breeze offered the race management team headed by Thierry Leret the opportunity to run matches on all three days.

Simon Bertheau made it clear from the beginning that he is looking for his third win in a row at the European tour and to claim back the lead from Slovenian Dejan Presen. Behind the French team, there were close fights for the podium between the J/70 experts from Yacht Club de Monaco, Francois Brenac, the Italian youth team with skipper Rocco Attilli and the Vienna Match Race Team with skipper Helmut Czasny.

“We are very excited about being on top of the leader board”, explained a super-happy French skipper Simon Bertheau, “it is all about team work and hard training. We had some tough matches but my team is great and we were always in control and managed to leave Monaco unbeaten. We look very much forward to the next events and the Grand Final!”

Bertheau is now back on the leader board with a maximum score of 150 points ahead of Slovenia Dejan Presen (110 points) and Austrian Christian Binder (100 points). The European Match Race tour will now head to Szczecin Match Cup at the end of May before reaching its northern summit at Copenhagen in June. The second last stop will be at Germany’s Ploen in August. The top eight skippers will qualify for the Grand Final which will take place in Ravenna from 8 – 10 September 2017.
 
European Match Race Tour
STANDINGS after Event 4 of 8
Total
 
1 Simon Bertheau FRA 150
2 Dejan Presen SLO 110
3 Christian Binder AUT 100
4 Vladimir Lipavsky RUS 75
5 Helmut Czasny AUT 55
6 Patryk Zbroja POL 50
7 Teo Piasevoli CRO 40
8 Francois Brenac FRA 40
9 Rocco Attilli ITA 35
10 Adam Smith AUS 30
11 Piotr Harasimowics POL 30
12 Dore De Morsier SUI 25
13 Pavle Kostov CRO 25
14 Max Trippolt AUT 25
15 Lars Hückstedt GER 20
16 Max Bulley SUI 20
17 Julian Kircher AUT 15
18 Sasa Kekovich MNE 15
19 Bojan Rajar SLO 12,5
20 Johanna Bergqvist SWE 10
21 Martin Dittrich AUT 10
22 Thomas Badri FRA 10
23 Jure Jerkovic CRO 5
24 Ainan Orlob GER 5
 
EUROPEAN MATCH RACE TOUR MONACO 2017
FINAL RESULTS
1 – Simon Bertheau – FRA
2- Francois Brenac – FRA
3 – Rocco Attilli – ITA
4 – Helmut Czasny – AUT
5 – Max Trippolt – AUT
6 – Max Bulley – SUI
7 – Piotr Harasimovics – POL
8 – Thomas Badri – FRA
 
 
The EUROPEAN MATCH RACE TOUR 2017
Tour Stop 1 – 10-12 February – Šibenik, CRO
Tour Stop 2 – 17-19 March – Tivat, MNE
Tour Stop 3 – 31 March – 2 April – Vienna, AUT
Tour Stop 4 – 7-9 April – Monaco, MON
Tour Stop 5 – 25-27 May – Szczesin, POL
Tour Stop 6 – 15-17 June – Copenhagen, DEN
Tour Stop 7 – 25 – 27 August – Ploen, GER
Grand Final 2017 – 8 – 10 September – Ravenna, ITA