Paulo Manso and Tiago Leal are the big winners of the 1st Melges 15 Cascais Winter Series.
The team from the Madeira Islands dominated the 1st stage of the Melges 15 Cascais Winter Series setting the tone from day one where they scored a second place and two bullets, and after a cancelled second day,wrapped it up with another two bullets on the third day, that secured them the win without having to sail the last race. “The boat was fast and that made our lives easier in the race course, but also on the downwinds we managed to sail the pressure patches well and that made the difference” said a satisfied Paulo Manso. Most remarkable on their performance was their ability to recover from the doldrums in race two and three. Trailing the winners were John and Katie Sheehy from the Royal St. George Yacht Club, in Ireland that also sailed consistent at the top, scoring 1, 2, 4, 4, 2, 1. Closing the podium were locals Joana Madeira and Diogo Pinto with 4, 5, 3, 3, 3, 2.
14 teams from Ireland, Portugal and Switzerland competed in this event. The weather instability in the Northern Atlantic also affected Cascais with temperatures collapsing to the mid to low teens and one day of racing cancelled due to strong winds and big swell. On Friday and Sunday the participants sailed in 12 to 17knots of shifty NW winds in the sail course inside the bay. Beautiful racing conditions that gave the sailors plenty to work on.
The Melges 15 class, a huge success in the US, with 800 boats sold in the last four years and with fleets of 100 boats competing is making headway in Europe, and Cascais provided sailors theopportunity to test the boat in racing conditions of wind and sea. Next M15 Cascais Winter Series will be from the 12th to the 14th April.
