Melges 24 Volvo Cup Series at Scarlino, Italy
by Melges 24 UK Press Officer 5 Mar 2008 16:05 GMT
UK Melges 24 teams were in action again on the European circuit last weekend at the first of the 2008 Volvo Cup Series regatta in Scarlino, Italy.
A bumper sixty-five boat entry was populated with the great and the good of European one design racing all keen to get up to speed before the 20008 World Championships to be held in Porto Cervo at the end of May.
The UK squad comprised three teams – Stuart Simpson’s Team Barbarians, Miles Quinton’s Mojo and Comfortably Numb jointly owned by Simon Dobson and Andrew Dellow.
Racing kicked off on Friday after a one hour delay and two races were sailed in an extremely light and variable breeze. Jamie Lea at the helm of Team Barbarians made the best of the conditions to record a third place in race one. Rob Larke and the Mojo team got buried on the first beat and were only able to claw back up to 31st. Meanwhile the Comfortably Numb crew had a particularly difficult time on the startline. Having infringed another boat they opted to take a penalty turn only to then hear their number called as being over the line too. Accordingly they headed off towards the pin boat to restart only to find that it was pulling up its anchor. Before they could get there it had set off downwind. With no alternative the Comfortably Numb team had to head for the committee boat instead – a long way in light airs. When they finally restarted it was some five minutes after the gun! A redress request eventually saw them awarded a five point improvement on their final place, moving them up to 50th.
In race two, Mojo and Team Barbarians could only manage a 24th and 25th respectively. Things had improved dramatically aboard Comfortably Numb however. They started at the committee boat and were able to take full advantage of a large right hand shift to round the first mark in the top ten. They built on this good position over the race and finished in sixth place. At the end of day one Team Barbarians just made the top ten in ninth place.
Saturday proved to be totally windless and after a mind-numbing five hours drifting about the fleet was sent home without a race being sailed.
Three races were sailed on the final day and the UK squad highlights were a seventh for Mojo in the penultimate race and another sixth for Rob Smith at the helm of Comfortably Numb in the final one. When the final scores were added up Team Barbarians came in 12th, Comfortably Numb 16th and Mojo 29th.