EUROSAF European Match Race Championship - YAVA Trophy 2008, Penultimate Day

by Yana Dobzhitskaya

Saturday in Russia, Neugodnikov and Weiller reached the final of the EUROSAF European Match Race Championship, “YAVA TROPHY 2008”.

To the applause and whistles of spectators the Russian skipper Evgeny Neugodnikov has reached the final of the EUROSAF European Match Race Championship, the “YAVA TROPHY 2008”. Sunday, September 14, he will meet the Spanish skipper Manuel Weiller in the final.

Nick Cherry and Staffan Lindberg will fight for the third place. After Neugodnikov’s victory by a score of 3:0 there was no chance left for Nick Cherry to reach the final.

Last year's winner of the YAVA TROPHY, Staffan Lindberg, experienced gear failure in his first match. Just after the preparatory signal the main halyard suddenly gave way, and the mainsail fell down.

However, the Finnish sportsmen kept their heads and hoisted the mainsail with the spinnaker halyard. They went on with racing, but couldn’t hoist the spinnaker on the course from the windward mark. As a result, Lindberg's opponent Manuel Weiller was faster sailing downwind. Lindberg also lost the second and the third matches.

After sail-offs, places from the 5th to 16th were determined:

5. Alvaro MARINHO (Portugal)
6. Francesco BRUNI (Italy)
7. Peter WIBROE (Denmark)
8. Tomislav BASIC (Croatia)
9. Eric MONNIN (Switzerland)
10. Carsten KEMMLING (Germany)
11. Andrew ARBUZOV (Russia)
12. Pierre-Antoine MORVAN (France)
13. John BAECK (Sweden)
14. Marek STANCZYK (Poland)
15. Jelle ROOS (Netherlands)
16. Jon BRECELJ (Slovenia)

Sunday, in addition to finals, there will be a fleet race. The best eight crews of the Championship will participate in it. The teams will each take one VIP on their boat.

SailRaceWin notes that the competitors at this event have needed to be somewhat resilient. As with the final day of the St Moritz Match Race this year, temperatures were only +4C for the quarterfinals of the YAVA Trophy, with rain all day long.

YAVA Trophy 2008