October 08, 2019 - Villasimius, Sardinia, Italy - The Mistral suddenly abandons Villasimius and, against all odds, the Melges 24 World Championship 2019 begins under the sign of a medium-light breeze from the northern quadrants, which still allows three races to be performed, the maximum allowed by notice of race for each day of regattas.

The European Champions in charge on board Maidollis ITA854 with Carlo Fracassoli in helm gain the first bullet of the series in Villasimius, but to impose themselves as leaders of the fleet are the Italians onboard Bombarda ITA860 by Andrea Pozzi that, with partial scores of 5-6-2, earn the top of the provisional ranking with a single length of advantage over solid Estonian entry Lenny EST790 of Tõnu Tõniste, second overall and firm leader among the Corinthians. Third place for the aforementioned Maidollis by Gianluca Perego, with a total of twenty-one points.

Andrea Pozzi: "An incredible debut, but cannot get too excited: the series is still extremely long and we must remain focused to give our best in each race. The fleet is balanced and competitive, as shown by the continuous upheavals in today's ranking, every point lost or gained can make the difference."

The second and third victory of the day went, in order, to Americans - Michael Goldfarb's Warcanoe USA841 (now 20th) and to Kevin Welch's Mikey USA835 (29th) with Jeff Madrigali in helm.

The race winners of the Corinthian division were Miles Quinton's Gill Race Team GBR694 with Geoff Carveth helming in races one and three; and Tõnu Tõniste's Lenny EST790 in race two.

The Corinthian ranking is led by Lenny EST790, followed by Marco Zammarchi's Taki 4 ITA778 with Niccolo Bertola in helm and Gill Race Team GBR694.

Races will resume tomorrow at 1 pm. Up to three more regattas can be completed.

Top 10 ranking after 3 races:
1. Bombarda, ITA860, Andrea Pozzi - 5 -6 -2 ; 13
2. Lenny, EST790, Tõnu Tõniste (COR) - 6 -2 -6 ; 14
3. Maidollis, ITA854, Carlo Fracassoli - 1 -17 -3 ; 21
4. Taki 4, ITA778, Niccolo Bertola (COR) - 16 -4 -5 ; 25
5. Monsoon, USA851, Bruce Ayres - 10 -5 -21 ; 36
6. Full Throttle, USA849, Brian Porter - 8 -10 -18 ; 36
7. Gill Race Team, GBR694, Geoff Carveth (COR) - 3 -31 -4 ; 38
8. Seven_Five_Nine, HUN759, Ákos Csoltó (COR) - 18 -8 -14 ; 40
9. White Room, GER677, Michael Tarabochia (COR) - 15 -14 -12 ; 41
10. Nortek Sailing Team, NOR628, Andreas Sola Fischer (COR) - 13 -7 -22 ; 42

Full results in Yachtscoring
Day One photos by ©Pierrick Contin

The Melges 24 World Championship is organized by the Marina di Villasimius and Lega Navale Italiana - Sez. Villasimius in cooperation with the Italian Melges 24 Class and International Melges 24 Class Association. The World Championship is the final event both of the 2019 Melges 24 European Sailing Series and Italian Melges24 Tour 2019.

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