NEVER 2 LATE wins ORC Sportboat European Championship 2023

by Offshore Racing Congress 2 Oct 2023 17:44 NZDT 25 September - 1 October 2023

ORC Sportboat European Championship 2023 © Zagas Photography

After five races varying from a 26-mile Coastal race to four hour-long Windward/Leeward courses, one winner has emerged at the 2023 ORC Sportboat European Championship, hosted by the Nautical Club of Kalamaki (NOK) with support from the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC).

Enrico Michel's (ITA) Melges 24 NEVER 2 LATE, helmed by Manu Hens, is the new ORC Sportboat European Champion on the strength of a 1-2-6-2-2 scoreline. Besides Enrico and Hans, the winning team consisted of Antonia Contin, Stefano Longhi and Paolo Lambertenghi.

When asked about the secret to their winning performance, Hens said "We have no secret, we are actually a group of Snipe sailors, we've known each other for quite some time who jumped into the Melges 24. That's probably our 'secret.'"

The four race days featured a variety of racing conditions to test the teams, from very light air to solid seabreezes, and close race results using ORC Performance Curve Scoring. Some races were resolved by only seconds in corrected time even after an hour of racing, and some places in some races had to be shared due to ties in corrected time.

Winning Silver medals is Ott Kikkas's (EST) team on his Corsa 915 SUGAR, the defending champions from 2022, who were 3 points back on a score line of 4-3-2-4-3. And the Bronze medalists are Arif Guerdenil's (TUR) Istanbul-based Farr 25 OD ORIENT XS with a score line of 3-1-7-3-8, 9 points from the lead.

ORC Sportboat European Championship 2023 - photo © Zagas Photography

Winning the all-amateur Corinthian division was Vasilis Gourgiotis's (GRE) J-24 EVNIKI, 2.5 points ahead of Andrea Pietrolucci's (ITA) Este 24 MILU' 4 and 16 points ahead of Kostas Koufoudakis's (GRE) J-80 JUNIOR.

"This was a tough regatta," said NOK event organizer Evangelos Polykandriotis. "We had a wide variety of conditions, but this was a good test for the teams. The race management and technical teams were very good, and I like the concept in the format [of having different race types].

Next year's 2024 ORC Sportboat European Regatta will be held in Valencia, Spain, where the new champions in NEVER 2 LATE have vowed to defend their title.

"We will be there for sure," said Manu Hans.

Final Results

Rank	Nation	Bow	Sail No	Yacht Name	Type	Skipper	Division	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total
1	ITA	590	ITA-590M24	NEVER 2 LATE	MELGES 24 OD	Michel Enrico		1.00	2.00	6.00	2.00	2.00	13.00
2	EST	12	EST-711	SUGAR	Corsa 915	Montefusco Sandro		4.00	3.00	2.00	4.00	3.00	16.00
3	TUR	8	TUR-1125	ORIENT XS	Farr 25 OD	Gurdenli Arif		3.00	1.00	7.00	3.00	8.00	22.00
4	GRE	1	GRE-5441	EVNIKI	J-24	Gourgiotis Vasilis	COR	2.00	6.00	14.00	1.00	1.00	24.00
5	GRE	10	GRE-2523	SIMOUN	PLATU 25 OD	Apostolou Georgios		7.00	4.00	3.00	6.00	6.00	26.00
6	ITA	4	ITA-24100	MILU' 4	Este 24	Pietrolucci Andrea	COR	5.00	5.00	8.00	5.00	4.50	27.50
7	GRE	2	GRE-2380	JUNIOR	J-80	Koufoudakis Kostas	COR	8.00	10.00	4.00	7.00	11.00	40.00
8	GRE	15	GRE-25295	OKEANIDA III	PLATU 25 OD	Noutsos Stylianos	COR	10.00	7.00	1.00	10.00	13.00	41.00
9	GRE	3	GRE-13087	MARACES EXPRESS	ILC 25	Raris Alexandros	COR	6.00	12.00	12.00	9.00	4.50	43.50
10	GRE	11	GRE-2513	STAR	PLATU 25	Tsirigakis Akis		11.00	11.00	5.00	11.00	10.00	48.00
11	GRE	7	GRE-25160	OKEANIDA IV	PLATU 25 OD	Marinou Chrisa	COR	9.00	8.00	13.00	12.00	9.00	51.00
12	GRE	9	GRE-2505	PLATYPOUS	PLATU 25 OD	Smirlis Manos		15.00 NSC	9.00	9.00	13.00	7.00	53.00
13	GRE	14	GRE-2510	OKEANIDA	PLATU 25 OD	Antypa Athina	COR	12.00	13.00	11.00	14.00	12.00	62.00
14	GRE	320	GRE-320	FEEL FREE	MELGES 24 OD	Zizis Harris	COR	15.00 NSC	15.00 DNS	10.00	8.00	15.00 DNC	63.00