26.07.2017

Day 4 – Final Official Class Report
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you just received a corrected version of our official class report of the Europeans with a change in the photos.
In case you have already posted the previous one, we are kindly requesting you to replace the photos with the following ones.
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Centro Vela Dervio, lake Como

The Hellenic Police team of Nikolaos Mavros and Alexandros Tagaropoulos, GRE 11 had their goal set on becoming European Tornado Open champions for the second time in a row and they did it!

After finishing 1st in 6 out of 8 races no one can challenge their sovereignty throughout the cup!

Nikolaos, the golden helm commented: “I am very pleased with the organisation and of course our results, winning for the second time in a row. Many many thanks to the people who worked in order to make this event so successful. Looking forward to the worlds!”

Great racing days for the Swiss teams also.. Second place overall goes to Marcel and Joerg Steiner. The two brothers scored only top 5 results proving they are so well trained, especially in these conditions.

Third place goes to Martin Rusterholz and Michael Gloor, the winners of the Swiss nationals. The day seemed to be very promising for them after scoring a bullet in the first race. Michael said: ” The first race, we had a very good start matching a tack right after the committee boat and managed to go to the right side with a lot of speed, arriving at the top mark in second with the other Swiss just in front of us. We caught them just after the leeward gate and achieved the total lead till the end”.

It is Jürgen Jentsch, president of the ITA and his wife Sarah Jentsch who are now the gold medalist in the Mixed Category! The first day was difficult for them, which made them convince themselves to sail better race by race to the top!

Second mixed, a crew that’s wandering around the pedestral many years now, Czech Zdenek Pavlis and his daughter Michaela Pavlisova. The young girl is sailing the Tornado since she was 12!!

Third mixed is the Salzman’s, Dietmar and Silvia who enjoy so much this father and daughter cooperation! So it’s Silvia’s day today as she will celebrate her birthday day with a European medal!

A new entrance in our class won the impressions and respect from everybody. The youth team of Yoann Trecul and Thomas Ferrand from France had an amazing performance despite some bad times in three of the races. The crew jumped to the Tornado after some F18 titles and they seem very strong, smart and promising contenders for next year’s events.

Roberta Righetti, the president of the Race committe mentioned: “We were lucky for having enough time to complete all the races. There were some problems as the wind was very shifty with 40 or 50 degrees changes so we tried to put the mark in the middle and let the sailors choose what they have to do. I noticed that the competitors are very correct because there was only one OCS who came back to start again. Some sailors retired when needed and as appropriate and came back to start again. This is my first time with the Tornado class but I like very much because the competitors are very friendly and correct responding to the rules. I would love to work with them again in future events.”

The ITA wants to thank officially the organizing committee, the race committee, the volunteers, the Centro Vela Dervio and the FIV for their aid in making this championship successful. It was our pleasure to sail in the lake.

Sails are set to Thessaloniki, Greece for the World championship starting on the 28th of August.

See you there!

22 July 2017

Tornado Europeans Centro Vela Dervio, lake Como, Italy

After the thunderstorm and a lot of rain last night a clear sky and a wind of maximum 13 knots made the ideal conditions to complete another 2 races back to back. The wind was very shifty, ranging from 160 to 200 degrees. The race comittee did an amazing job coping with these changes, considering that the depth of the lake is around 200meters!!

It was even better for the Hellenic Police team! Mavros and Tagaropoulos dominated again today, finishing 1st in both races, leading now with 6 points difference for the second one, SUI 1.

The Steiner brothers, Marcel and Joerg, SUI 1 and Martin Rusterholz – Michael Gloor, SUI 228 complete the top 3 places after scoring a second and a third each.

A damage on the spinlock for Ingo Gebhard and Benedikt Wachsmann made them retire from the second race of the day, droping them in the 4th place overall..

Jürgen and Sarah Jentsch are still leading the Mixed division. The fight will be tight tomorrow, the last day of the championship for this title as the CZE, Pavlis and Pavlisova are just 5 points behind the first and only 1 point in front of the Salzmanns.

Andrea Ciavatta, crew of the ITA 46 boat mentioned: ” It is nice to sail in my country as we are a bit more familiar with the condition and closer to our home. Today though the race was hard because of the shifts that made us score a 12th and an 8th place. Hoping for some better results tomorrow.”

Allan Gamble saying :” In the 5th race we had a perfect start which is essential for sailing on lake Como so we were 3rd for most of the race but Martin got us on the 2nd downwind. Obviously we are very pleased with our speed but we should keep up with the wind better. The 6th race…. hero to zero in 3.5sec which is how much too early we were for the start. OCS! Oops! Apologies to all those boats that we created catastrophy including Nick and Alex. From SML (Stone Motherless Last) we chased the fleet and peeked up 3 boats per lap trying very hard but it was very difficult as everybody has good speed and the wind conditions are tricky. Lake Como lives up to every expectation with challenging sailing conditions! ”