Second place to Monaco sailors sailing at home
The J70 world championship, organized by the Yacht Club de Monaco, ended with a victory for the Swiss team Decouvertes-GeoMod. The crew formed by Kilian Wagen, Gregeoire Siegwart, Luke Patience, David Hughes, Celia Wilson, finishes on the top step of the podium, followed by the Monaco-based Leonteq team formed by Pierrik Devic, Francois Brenac, Stephane Christidis, Axelle Foucaud, Martin Lemarchand. Bronze medalists were the Americans from Relative Obscurity of Peter Duncan, Willam Van Waay, Morgan Trubovich and Victor Diaz de Leon.
“We are world champions and with my team we are very happy with the result,” says Luke Patience. “We came to Monaco to win and we put a lot of effort into getting this result. We did not expect it. It was great and I sailed with some old friends. There was a moment when I thought that if we could finish the race in a certain position then we could become world champions. It’s a strange feeling because you don’t want it because otherwise you’re likely to become devolved and instead it has to keep your attention high. I didn’t tell the other teammates, I kept it to myself. It was great. The conditions were difficult because the wind kept changing but in English we say ‘fortune favors the brave’ and that’s what happened today.”
Second place to the Monegasques who were sailing at home: “We are delighted, it is a magnificent result for us because the competition was really high. There were world champions and athletes who competed in the Olympics, and for us it’s really an incredible placement,” Pierrik Devic stressed, “We only realized when we got to shore that we had placed second. Satisfaction for Yacht Club de Monaco Vice President Pierre Casiraghi, who also participated in the competition alongside Jean-Baptiste Bernaz, current world champion of the ILCA 7 class.
“Having all these incredible sailing champions,” highlights Pierre Casiraghi, “was fantastic for the Yacht Club. We have been working for years to prepare for this moment, and I want to thank all the Yacht Club team members as well as all the athletes who participated and worked hard.” The satisfaction is double because “we have a Monegasque vice world champion of whom we are very proud. Congratulations also to the Swiss team who showed great consistency during the regatta and did a remarkable job. As the Yacht Club de Monaco we are very happy and hope to be able to organize more events of this magnitude,” he remarked.
The three races of the regatta were condensed into a single day due to weather conditions, “We had four really abnormal days due to an anticyclone of 1,025 hectopascals, zero gradient, zero wind and no chance of being able to exceed the 6 knots that are needed to do these races. Fortunately, the wind eventually arrived. However, these are anomalous characteristics because usually in October the wind is more relaxed and there are more disturbances,” explains Gianfranco Meggiorin, president of Navimeteo, who was in charge of the weather briefings for the sailors during the race days. “What is happening,” he adds, “is that the Mediterranean is changing character a bit: these 4-5 days of little wind are not indicative but a small signal because they are out of season. Actually what should make us think more is the warming of the sea surface, the sudden storm phenomena that tell us precisely that the Mediterranean is changing a bit and the oceans too. We need to follow this evolution.”
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