Incredible weekend behind! The 10th Finnish Melges 24 ranking season started in style. A record breaking 18 boats were competing in Naantali (south western Finland).
Naantali is known as the sunny town and no the city didn´t give a disappointment. Two days - sunshine from a blue sky but the turn side was that the wind has really shifty and with a velocity of 2 to 10 knots.
The racing on Sunday was a copy of Saturday. Overnight leader Zuxu(EST-791), helmed by Peter Saraskin, continued their impressive sailing in the really extreme conditions taking two third places. Midnight Sun Sailing One (FIN-529), helmed by Sami Ekblad gave a good fight against Zuxu but a small error in the last race snatched their ranking win. MSS One crossed fifth the finishing line in the last race. This meant that Zuxu and MSS One had a tie. Zuxu having two wins against MSS One´s one and the result was that honours went to Zuxu.
Behind the two leading boats Miinakissa IV (FIN-434) helmed by Sami Tamminen and MSS Two (FIN-214) helmed by Esa Harjulahti had their own fight for bronze. Miinakissa took bronze with a really good series (5,9,2,2).
Risto Alho Memoria Trophy was awarded to Zuxu´s Kalev Tanner. The Trophy will be awarded the next time after the first event in 2010.
Full results - click here.
Some pictures by fleet coach Arto Kiiski - click here
Six days and next ranking event this time in Helsinki. It looks that we will have a new record - 19 boats on the line ! ! !