| Italian Grand Prix. |
| Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy. |
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By Frank Quealey,
the Australian 18 Footers League
edited By Peter Andrews. |
Sunday, September 26,
2010. |
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| Germany's Friedrich
Renner and his Eurolink team took out the Italian 18ft Skiff Grand
Prix on Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy while Denmark’s Flemming
Clausen and his Original Chia team won their second consecutive
European Grand Prix Trophy series. |
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Racing during the 2010 Italian 18ft Skiff
Grand Prix on Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy.
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| Going into the final
round of the European Grand Prix, there were still three teams
in winning contention for the overall 2010 European Grand Prix.
They were Original Chia (formerly named GP Covers), skippered by
Flemming Clausen from Denmark on 31 points, Pica (James Mears-UK)
on 25 and Liberty Sailing (Miklos Ujhelyi-Gaspar-Hungary) on 24. |
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Racing during the 2010 Italian 18ft Skiff
Grand Prix on Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy.
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On Day One, while
the big three were expected to dominate the regatta, it was the
German Eurolink team, skippered by Friedrich Renner from Munich,
which starred with three wins from four races.
The Germans had made a change to their previous setup which gave
them increased speed upwind, while losing only a little downwind
in the tricky, shifting 5-15 knot winds. |
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Racing during the 2010 Italian 18ft Skiff
Grand Prix on Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy.
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| On Day Two, Eurolink
capsized in Race Two but placings of third, seventh and second
over the day enabled the German team to retain a narrow points
lead over Liberty Sailing, Pica and Original Chia. |
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Racing during the 2010 Italian 18ft Skiff
Grand Prix on Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy.
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Eurolink went into
the final day with a narrow points lead over the fleet, with sunny
skies and gusting, shifting 10-12 knot winds prevailed for Race
One.
Liberty Sailing won the race after her team elected to go alone
on the right hand side of the course on the first windward leg
while Pica, Original Chia and Norbert Peter’s Magic Marine
(Germany) all went to the left. |
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Racing during the 2010 Italian 18ft Skiff
Grand Prix on Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy.
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Eurolink finished
a disappointing fifth but fought back to take the next race and
win the Italian Grand Prix from Liberty Sailing and Original Chia.
Original Chia’s third placing was enough, however, to secure
her overall victory in the 2010 European Grand Prix from Liberty
Sailing, with Pica in third place. |
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Racing during the 2010 Italian 18ft Skiff
Grand Prix on Lake Iseo, Lovere, Italy.
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Two new teams from
Italy (Firat) and Netherlands (Pandion) competed in the Grand Prix
for the first time and performed well. They will gain a lot of
experience from the competition and will add to the strength of
the European fleet in 2011.
Frank Quealey
www.flying18s.com. |
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| Outimage and the
Australian 18 Footers League © 2010 |
