Portoroz, Slovenia, April 3, 2019 – The one-design season opened with Stage 1 of the AlpeAdria Cup for the Melges 24, one of the boats that, more than two decades after its debut on the race courses, still proves to be among the most dynamic and popular one-designs on the international sailing scene.
Twelve Italian, Slovenian, Croatian and Hungarian flag crews participated in the event hosted by Portoroz Marina, completing a total of six races in moderate wind conditions between 8 and 12 knots.
Taking the victory at the end of the two-day regatta was skipper Sergio Caramel’s Arkanoè by Montura (ITA-809) who, with a series of 1, 1, 2, 2, UFD (discard) and 1, finished clearly in the lead with 7 total points.
In second place is a solid I’m Free (HUN754) with 13 points, and in third place is the excellent Destriero (ITA579) with 18 points, helmed by Davide Rapotez, the soul of the new “Trieste” circuit and the large local fleet.
“An excellent weekend of sunshine and breeze accompanied us during a quality warm up, preceding and in preparation for the first leg of 2019 Melges 24 European Sailing Series that will take place right here in Portoroz next weekend, April 5-7. A good start to this long season that will conclude in October in Villasimius with the Melges 24 World Championship. Portoroz will also host the European Championship in 2020, so sailing here and getting to know the race course becomes more and more interesting and important,” said Sergio Caramel, the young helmsman of Arkanoè Sailing Team Melges 24 who with Filippo Orvieto, the Gomiero brothers and Margherita Zanuso led the boat flying the pennant of the Padua-based club Il Portodimare.
Excellent, once again, the hospitality of YC Marina Portoroz and Branko Parunov, who are in these hours welcoming the fleet arriving from all over Europe with already 32 formalized entries representing 12 nations.
