Ramla Bay Resort-1565 weekend regatta
Sailors of all ages revel in three-day festival
Over 50 boats participated in the 12th edition of the Ramla Bay Resort-1565 regatta, organised by the Royal Malta Yacht Club last weekend. It was a festival for sailors of all ages from eight years upwards who sailed aboard oppis, lasers and the big keel boats.
As usual, this championship was contested in full gear with several hot-boats making it to the starting line for a three-day race of sailing in both channels round Comino.
Favourite Strait Dealer had to fight tooth and nail to shake off the fierce competition from Primadonna and Maltese Falcon.
Light breezes were the order of the first two days of racing with Strait Dealer clinching the first one with ease. Maltese Falcon made the going tough for the whole fleet by winning the second race, outpacing Primadonna by just one minute 47 seconds.
In the other class, both Mad Max and First Time picked up one win each with favourite Artie clinging on to second place twice to maintain its lead together with Mad Max at four points each.
The thrills were left for the final day setting, a popular three-lap race course from Ramla Bay to rounding Fessej Rock at Mgarr ix-Xini in rather stronger winds than the previous two days.
New Boat XL made life difficult for Strait Dealer at the start with close marking while Allegra was beating well upwind with smart tactics that had the others struggling to keep up with the top lot. It was a fast race that had some boats picking up 12 knots downwind after rounding Fessej Rock.
In the end, Strait Dealer topped its class and also the overall trophy with Artie showing its supremacy in the other category by overcoming the stiff challenge of Mad Max.
Youngster Peter Valentino made his professional mark again by winning all the five races in the Radial Laser Class of at least 10 participants.
Matthew Fleri Soler also had an easy weekend by beating all the 4.7s with three wins and two seconds.
Young sailor Gabriel Pace had the better of the whole Optimist fleet with a forceful show while future prospect Karl Cremona had to be content with second position this time round.