NEVER 2 LATE wins ORC Sportboat European Championship 2023
1 October 2023 - Athens, Greece – 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.
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 Hens.
Final top 5 results 2023 ORC Sportboat European Championship
1. 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝟮 𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘 ITA590 Melges 24 - 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹 𝗘𝗻𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗼 / 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘂 𝗛𝗲𝗻𝘀 1-2-6-2-2 𝟭𝟯𝗽𝘁𝘀
2. 𝗦𝗨𝗚𝗔𝗥 EST711 Corsa 915 - 𝗢𝘁𝘁 𝗞𝗶𝗸𝗸𝗮𝘀 / 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗼 4-3-2-4-3 𝟭𝟲𝗽𝘁𝘀
3. 𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗫𝗦 TUR1125 Farr 25 OD - 𝗔𝗿𝗶𝗳 𝗚𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗹𝗶 3-1-7-3-8 𝟮𝟮𝗽𝘁𝘀
4. 𝗘𝗩𝗡𝗜𝗞𝗜 GRE5441 J-24 - 𝗩𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘀 (COR) 2-6-14-1-1 𝟮𝟰𝗽𝘁𝘀
5. 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝗢𝗨𝗡 GRE2523 Platu 25 OD - 𝗔𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗼𝘂 𝗚𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗼𝘀 7-4-3-6-6 𝟮𝟲𝗽𝘁𝘀
