2017 Melges 24 European Sailing Series 16.09.2017

September 16, 2017 – Medemblik, the Netherlands –

2017 Melges 24 European Sailing Series Medemblik –

Day Two FGF Sailing Team Remains The Leader

September 16, 2017 – Medemblik, the Netherlands – Delta Lloyd Open Dutch Championship, considered as the penultimate event of the 2017 Melges 24 European Sailing Series, continued in Medemblik today. With another three races completed on the second day of the event Hungarian FGF SAILING TEAM with Robert Bakoczy in helm is keeping his leading position while there have been six races sailed and one discard came into play after fifth race.

Similarly to yesterday the weather forecast differed from the real life. Although heavy rain was about to show up since the morning, the sailors were happy to get two races sailed in wonderful conditions like yesterday – sunshine and wind of seven to ten knots made sailing fun and enjoyable. But while attempting to start race number six around 2 pm, the huge dark cloud covered the sky bringing some major wind shifts and heavy rain with it. The Race Committee of the Green course led by Marcol de Klerk was not able to start the last race of the day before waiting the wind to stabilize about one hour and fifteen minutes later. During the race in heavy rain the wind weakened, but also changed its direction quite a lot so that only Melges 24 fleet got their sixth race finished while the race was abandoned for the SB20s, Ynglings and J22s.

FGF SAILING TEAM (HUN728) with Robert Bakoczy in helm continued their consistent racing scoring the third place and two second places today. As after the fifth sailed race a discard came into play, the worse result to discard for Hungarian team was third place their score will be seven points in total. The helmsman Robert Bakoczy was happy commenting two racing days in Medemblik. „We have been sailing here before and the place and conditions are familiar to us. The weather could be better, but both today and yesterday we got some really great races in wonderful conditions. Three bullets yesterday made us especially happy, but our closest competitors – TEAM KESBEKE/SIKA/GILL and GILL RACE TEAM are very good too. There’s still one day to go and we are trying to be in front of them at the end of the event. This is a great competition here for us heading to the final event of the series to be held in Luino in October, where also Italian teams will be present to make competition more close and strong for the final positions in the Melges 24 European ranking.“

Eelco Blok’s TEAM KESBEKE/SIKA/GILL (NED827) with Ronald Veraar helming won one race today and scored also 2nd and 6th as the discard to the total score. Dutch team is currently runner-up and three points behind the leader. Miles Quinton’s GILL RACE TEAM (GBR694) winning the first race today and gaining also two third places, is lying on the third position with seven points separating the top three places.

For the final day of the event the racing has been rescheduled to start earlier – at 10 am. Check the Notice Board here. Two more races can be in store for Melges 24 fleet as the maximum number of races. The forecast is not so generous to deliver enough wind for tomorrow, but we’ll see in the morning.

Results
Day 1 photos by Jasper van Staveren – www.SailService.org

More information about the series, the Notice of Race and online registration of the events are available at melges24.com/europeansailingseries