Western Corsica - After more than 24 hours of racing, the ten Figaro Benetau 3 protagonists of the EUROSAF Mixed Offshore European Championship (EMOEC), organized by Sailing Series International in collaboration with the Lega Navale Italiana, under the aegis of EUROSAF, along the La Maddalena-Genoa route, found the first concrete 'double-digit' wind.
The first day at sea saw the crews advance slowly along the west coast of Corsica, engaged in a sort of infinite match race, one so close to the other that they could communicate by voice.
Sailing very close to the coastal reliefs, in order to take advantage of the residues of the afternoon wind and the first gusts of the morning sea-breeze, the fleet was led from the very beginning by Mexedia Sailing Project (Cecilia Zorzi-Giovanni di Monaco) and by the Spanishh crew of IREN (Elena e Carlos Manera), with POL/UKR (Barbara Karpinska and Vladimir Kulinichenko) to intervene in the top struggle.
The leading group gradually broke away from their pursuers and hooked up in advance the double-digit south-westerly breeze, lengthening their pace towards Genoa.
As we write, Mexedia Sailing Project, which on board counts on the reigning European Double Mixed Offshore champion Cecilia Zorzi, is not so far from Calvi with a margin of 0.4 mn on IREN, which follows in the wake, and 1.3 nm on POL/UKR.
The arrival in Genoa, if the light wind forecasts will be confirmed by the facts, is scheduled for late tomorrow morning.