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Pierluigi ‘PG’ de Felice took out the RaD Car Hire Moth national title at Algies Bay in the weekend with a near-perfect series of results on his scorecard.
Pierluigi ‘PG’ de Felice won seven of the eight races to take the national title. Photo: Jodie.
The Italian, who has done a handful of America’s Cup campaigns and is part of Luna Rossa’s team for the 2021 event, won seven of the eight races possible over the three days. He finished eight points ahead of Stu Goodes with defending champion Russ Evans a further three points behind in three.
The regatta attracted a field with a number of recognisable names, including Olympic bronze medallist Sam Meech, America’s Cup veteran Ray Davies, Volvo Ocean Race winner Brad Marsh and four-time Olympian and former Team New Zealand tactician Hamish Pepper, but none were in the same class as the top three. In fact, only Dan Leech and Pepper registered a finish in the top three across the eight-race series.
There was some tight racing in the middle of the fleet, with only one point separating sixth (Graeme Sutherland), seventh (Pepper) and eighth (Mike Rhodes).
The final day was cancelled due to a lack of wind but a number of sailors might not have been too disappointed with that given the tough conditions over the first two days of the regatta.
"Day two was promised to be lighter breeze and many were very keen to see this happen after the gruelling four-race day in breeze and waves on the first day," Marsh told Live Sail Die. "However, it soon became apparent that day two would be very similar to day one.
"One man happy to race in these conditions was Dan Leech who had come from Christchurch. In an older generation boat he was showing that consistency and reliability gets results and he plugged his way through the middle of the fleet to finish a very credible fourth place for the regatta.
"Behind him was a pack of wolves chasing him down but a few too many capsizes and head to wind tacks were to blame (never the helmsman himself) and the result was a group of very good sailors packed close together in a huddle of points having to be decided by countback."
The Moth class will feature at next month's Sail Akarana event at Royal Akarana Yacht Club to round out the season with the next event likely to be December's Sir Peter Blake Regatta at Torbay.
Results from the Moth national championships at Sandspt Yacht Club last weekend (13 boats):
1st: Pierluigi De Felice 1 (3) 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 7 points
2nd: Stu Goodes (3) 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 - 15 pts
3rd: Russ Evans 2 1 4 3 (10) 3 3 2 - 18 pts
Full results can be found here
Russ Evans, left, Pierluigi De Felice and Stu Goodes.
