Melges 20 European Championship, back to back: Filippo Pacinotti's Brontolo is again on top of Europe. Rookie Team Bianca wins the Corinthian title

Melges 20 European Championship, back to back: Filippo Pacinotti's Brontolo is again on top of Europe. Rookie Team Bianca wins the Corinthian title

Puntaldia (Italy), 25 September 2021 - Back to back: Brontolo is crowned once again Melges 20 European Champion. After the success obtained in Malcesine in 2019, the crew led by Filippo Pacinotti defended the title in the waters of Puntaldia, at the end of a week that challenged the participants with extremely variable conditions, from the evanescent breeze to the 20 knots of South-Easterly wind.

Brontolo's victory was anything but obvious: Pacinotti started the last day of racing, with three races scheduled, 3 points behind Dario Levi's Fremito d'Arja, who had until then maintained the control over the ranking. On a day of strong wind and steep waves, Brontolo managed to recover important points in each race.

With daily results of 2-3-1, and a fourth place discarded as the worst result of the whole series, Brontolo defended the continental title leaving behind the Russian crew of Russian Bogatyrs by Igor Rytov, also protagonists of a good recovery on the last day. Fremito d’Arja, after an excellent week of racing, won the bronze medal.

"Winning two European titles in a row is a wonderful emotion and perhaps even a record in the Melges 20 Class, a goal that no one had achieved before. In Puntaldia we arrived a bit in a hurry, with a change of crew in the last second, but we were happy from the first moment and, despite the difficult conditions we had to face, winning the continental title on the last leg of the last race was a fantastic emotion” commented Pacinotti upon his return to the dock.

The battle in the Corinthian division, reserved for non-professional sailors, was open until the end: also in this case, the name of the winner was only revealed at the end of the last race of the series. Thus, the new European Champion Melges 20 Corinthian 2021 responds to the name of TeamBianca by Bianca Limonta and Davide Castelli: the crew, making their debut this year in the Melges 20 fleet, won the continental title at the end of a series with partial results in continuous improvement, leaving behind by only 2 points B.Lex by Benedetta Iovane and Kindako by Stefano Visintin, bronze medal.

During the awards ceremony, the winners of the Melges World League 2021 circuit were also crowned: after five events hosted in Scarlino, Cala Galera, Malcesine, Villasimius and Puntaldia, the winner is Dario Levi with Fremito d'Arja, followed by Russian Bogatyrs and Nika by Vladimir Prosikhin. In the Corinthian division, the winner of the circuit is Siderval by Marco Giannini, followed by B.Lex of Benedetta Iovane and TeamBianca.

The activity of the Melges World League does not stop there: the sailors will return to the water as early as next week, from 1st to 3rd October, for the grand finale of the Melges 14 season, which in Santa Marinella will be hosted by Planet Sail Bracciano and Guglielmo Marconi Nautical Club.

Melges World League Partners:
The Melges World League 2021 are supported by Helly Hansen, Quantum, North Sails e Garmin, oltre che dai technical partners Free Ride Cosmetics, Equilibra, Rigoni di Asiago, Revì, Acqua Cedea, Azienda Agricola il Ponte, Birrificio Petragnolo, Dai Dai, Pasta Berruto, La Bellanotte, Sabatini Gin, Caffè Toscano, Azienda Vinicola Contini, FoodNess, LTH, Rifugio Lilla e le Formiche di Vettori.

Melges Europe and Melges World League support the message of One Ocean Foundation having signed Charta Smeralda.