EBENSEE - The Italian “Euk II” helmed by Sandro Montefusco won the Second Act of the Platu 25 Alpen Cup that took place in Ebensee, on the Traunsee Lake from the 21 to the 22 of May. After six very competitive races and an exciting head and head with the Austrian “La Burra”, Sandro Montefusco and his crew (composed by the Swiss Sigrist Markus as a tactitian and Gerig Lukas, Minutolo Capece, Francesco Lansera and Elisabetta Picca) conquered today a second and two first places, outdistancing the direct adversary just in the last race.

The Austrian “La Burra” helmed by Thomas Laherstorfer with the local tactician Peter Steinkogler on board, indeed, had until the last race the victory in the bag. (they had 8 points against the twelve points of the Italians, before the discard). Unfortunately for the Austrian team, in the last and sixth race, “La Burra” had a crash with the Swiss team “Suberbüsi” helmed by Mathias Bermejo. There was no chance for them and they had to be content at the end with a second place in the general ranking list.

The Swiss team from Luzern kept its Saturday third position, despite the DSQ penalty in the last race. After and excellent regatta, "Suberbüsi” lost a lot of points because of the protest by “La Burra” that obtained reason against them. The German “Farrbarr” helmed by Jens Ahlgrimm made a good recovery, conquering the fourth position, very near to the podium, after the penalty suffered by “Suberbüsi” .

On Sunday, there were very good sailing conditions. The thermal wind started blowing very early in the morning, at 9.30. The weather conditions were nearly perfect when there was first start at 11.00, with a wind blowing up to 15 knots but maintaining much more constant than on Saturday. The Sailing Club Ebensee was a friendly host with a good and quick acting race committee. With Mercedes-Benz Austria as Sponsor a nice venue was given.

On the start line there were 19 participants : five from Austria, one from Italy, three from Switzerland and 10 from Germany. The Second Act of the Platu 25 Alpen Cup in Ebensee was a very important occasion for crews to test the same regatta field of the World Championship that will take place in Gmunden, on the same Traunsee Lake next week (28 May-3 June).

At least 50 crews are expected in Gmunden. A lot of competitive German, Spanish and Italian boats didn’t take part to the regatta in Ebensee and they are ready to join the fray. For the very competitive Italian-Swiss team lead by Sandro Montefusco this first victory could mean a sort of mortgage on the Worlds results and for the Austrian “La Burra", an occasion for a return match. .

Ranking list (after six races and one discard)

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PHOTO: Andreas Prummer

English edited by
Kev Sott
(Thailand NCA)