Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Dieter Schön dominate opening day of 5.5 Metre Europeans in Sanremo
Momo (SUI 229) of Dieter Schön, Markus Wieser and Thomas Auracher had the best of the day with a 3, 1 to take the overall lead.
Aspire (POL 17) of Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Przemyslaw Gacek and Simon Fry won their first race on their first day racing in class to lie second overnight with a 1, 5.
Third is Caracole (SUI 214) of Bernard Haissly, Berthoud Nicolas and Daniel Stampfli) with a 4, 3.
The day began hot and windless with a two-hour postponement to wait for the wind, which then drifted to nearly four hours. The fleet was finally sent out late afternoon in a building breeze.
Aspire were fast out of the blocks in Race 1, soon tacked and were gone. Ali Baba (BAH 23) reeled in some distance, they could not pass and ended up second. Momo sailed well to cross the finish in third.
Momo then gained a jump out of the start in Race 2, tacking quickly to the right, led round the top to lead all the way to the finish and take the win. New Moon II (BAH 24) chased hard but could not quite catch up.
5.5 Metre Europeans after 2 races (21 entries)
1st Momo (SUI 229, Dieter Schön, Markus Wieser, Thomas Auracher) 4 pts
2nd Aspire (POL 17, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Przemyslaw Gacek, Simon Fry) 6 pts
3rd Caracole (SUI 214, Bernard Haissly, Berthoud Nicolas, Daniel Stampfli) 7 pts
4th Ali Baba (BAH 23, Martin Manrique, Flavio Marazzi, William Alloway) 8 pts
5th New Moon II (BAH 24, Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Peter Vlasov) 9 pts
6th Marie-Francoise XXI (SUI 232, Jurg Menzi, Jurgen Eiermann, Bo Selko) 13 pts
7th Shaolin (SUI 226, Cujean Lucien, Andreas Kindlimann, Hans Von Werdt) 14 pts
8th Otto (NOR 68, Bent Cristian Wilhelmsen, Lasse Berthelsen, Luka Strahovnik) 14 pts
9th Black & White (SUI 219, Daniel Schenker, Mark Dangel, Anthony Shanks) 15 pts
10th Forza Del Destino (SUI 211, George Prapopoulos, Simon Pfandler, David Schneeberger) 20 pts