European Championship – Final Results and Regatta Report
Cervia, August 14th, 2012. 1. ESP 29609 Raul De Valenzuela Santaella & Alejandre De Ona Antolin 2. ESP 29724 Paco Sanchez Ferrer & Marina Sanchez Ferrer 3. ITA 29685 Giampiero Poggi & Eugenia Vanni Regatta report by Alberto Perdisa. After more than a week of sailing in Cervia, both the Junior and Senior European Championship were dominated by the Spanish crews who proved to be the best in the continent.
Cervia, August 14th, 2012.
1. ESP 29609 Raul De Valenzuela Santaella & Alejandre De Ona Antolin
2. ESP 29724 Paco Sanchez Ferrer & Marina Sanchez Ferrer
3. ITA 29685 Giampiero Poggi & Eugenia Vanni
Regatta report by Alberto Perdisa.
After more than a week of sailing in Cervia, both the Junior and Senior European Championship were dominated by the Spanish crews who proved to be the best in the continent.
The Junior Championship saw all nine scheduled races completed, with the clear victory of Guerrero & Del Riego (five bullets) preceding Ruiz Sanchez/Hernandez and Martinez Doreste/Cabrera.
Italy’s Laser Youth World Champion Giovanni Coccoluto with Pietro Parisi as crew was able to fight until the end for the second place and won one race with authority. Slower speed on the reaches and tight control by the Spaniards, especially in the last day of the regatta, made the young Italians nervous and penalized them too. Italians Marco/Ilaria Rochelli, Hermes Ferialdi/Federica Biondi, Pittani/Cerni and Collinucci/Raulli also posted some good finishes. These young people, if they devote more time to Snipe, will certainly be able to compete at a high level.
Junior Europeans – Final Results
The Senior Europeans saw nine races completed of the eleven planned. It was a spectacular championship fought very hard, with winds mainly from the east at 8 to 12 knots. With current from the north the waves were short due to the shallow waters off Cervia. The upwind legs were difficult to understand and the strategy was never obvious, enhancing the technical level of the best teams.
On the last day of racing, thanks to aggressive but precise strategy the team of Raul De Valenzuela /Antolin Alexandre de Ona overtook defending champion Francisco “Paco” Sanchez with sister Marina as crew, who initially seemed ready to reconfirm the title with three bullets. On the last day what looked like a Spanish championship also saw the improvement of Italian teams with Gianpiero Poggi/Eugenia Vanni authors of good positions that raised them to the third step of the podium.
Rayco Tabares/Gonzalo Morales had long battled with Sanchez for the win but due to an OCS in the seventh race they finished fourth. Jordi Triay/Mas Barcelo and Francisco Palacio/Alvaro Martinez (current Junior World Champions) also fought for the podium until the end of the Championship.
Other teams that also had some good races included Pietro Fantoni/Michelle Morphew, Andrea Zaoli/Davide Ortelli, and Paolo Lambertenghi/Silvia Pederiva, who all finished in the top 15. A little bit under their usual standard were the Belgians (Janssens, Peeters and Den Hartigh), as well as the Norwegian Sandvig and the Dane Persson.
Regarding the boats, it was interesting debut for the very nice new DB Marine, which was used by Triay/Michel. Equally among the top ten were Ax, Persson and Zeltic.
About the sails, you must record the new Ulmer Kolius Spain used by Valenzuela, but also the Italian Speed Sails of Poggi, and Zaoli sails with three boats in the top ten including Sanchez and Triay. In the top positions were also North Japan and Quantum San Diego.
The Snipe has once again demonstrated itself as a boat which demands excellent boathandling and tactics, features enhanced in Cervia, a very technical race course.
European Championship – Day One
European Championship – Day Two
European Championship – Day Three
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1 comment
thierry den hartigh
oh, it,s OK, I do not have a bad feeling about my result, ... with only 8 hours of sailing this year,...you can not expect miracles, What I learned this year is that experience is not enough to compete on top level. Training is required; on board communication is essential, trim and speed finetuning is an essential knowledge to ease the tactics on the moment of action, physical condition training is a must,... perhaps I,m getting to old for this,... but it is also a motivation to come back. thank you for everything and everybody in cervia. and congrats to everybody in cervia, the winners and the losers,...and i will see you back in poland,... thierry den hartigh
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