(Monte Carlo, Monaco)- The competition and participation continue to increase in the J/70 Monaco Winter Series. After a long holiday break over Christmas and New Year’s, the J/70 sailors in Europe got back to business in the third installment of the series in Monte Carlo; an event marked by a wide range of conditions that included no wind to lots of wind and waves.
The PRO at YC Monaco knew he was up to a daunting task of getting off a good series given the weather forecasts for the three-day weekend. With a light winds forecast for Friday, the question was how much breeze would persist for Saturday and Sunday. Ultimately, while Friday’s sailing was canceled, the next two days of racing produced some amazing racing- sun, fun, 16-20 kts winds and 5.5 foot waves Saturday and 10-13 kts winds and 3 foot waves on Sunday. In total, the fleet enjoyed five awesome races off Hercules Harbor.
What
became self-evident was the German teams in attendance were not only
well-sailed, but were sailing in the event as a precursor to their J/70
Deutsche Segel-Bundesliga events and with an eye towards the J/70 Worlds
in La Rochelle, France in July and the J/70 Europeans in October in
Monte Carlo.Surprising both the top-flight German teams as well as the local J/70 cognoscenti at YC Monaco was the performance by Steffen Hepberger & Dennis Mehlig’s team on ESPRIT D’EQUIPE. Posting only top three scores of 3-2-1-3-2, Hepberger’s crew seemingly mastered the very tricky local conditions to win the regatta with just 8 pts net.
Second overall was a rapidly ascending United Kingdom crew, Ian Wilson’s JOYRIDE with a 4-1-2-2-4 tally for just 9 pts net.
The Blankeneser Segel Club Hamburg showed up with a brand new J/70 for the Monaco event. Skipper Claas Lehmann with crew of Björn Athmer, Marc Daniel Mählmann and Dennis Ruge sailed a very strong regatta after a disappointing first race. In the end, their 8-3-6-1-3 record vindicated their ability to sail in the top three.
Rounding out the top five were the top two YC Monaco teams- Ian Isley & Francois Brenac’s ST ANDREWS in fourth with 16 pts and Jacopo Carrain & Enrico Fonda’s CARPE DIEM in fifth with 17 pts.
It was close racing for the fleet, with five separate winners for five races! What was clear from the results over the weekend was that a good start, better set or takedown, one more good surf into the gate made an enormous difference in the overall results! The next event promises to be even closer as this fleet will be sailing the famous YC Monaco Primo Cup- Credit Suisse in two weeks. For more YC Monaco J/70 Winter Series sailing information.
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