Timmy Vassallo, Shaun Aquilina and Jake Mallia were among the winners as around 100 sailors from every local sailing school raced the National Dinghy Ranking Regatta at the Royal Malta Yacht Club, the first event of Yachting Malta Race Week.
Saturday brought steady 13 to 15 knot winds and a moderate swell. Sunday’s winds were shifty; a 90-degree shift forced the abandonment of the third race just after the ILCA 6 start, before the breeze settled for a final race inside the 40-minute limit.
Luca Scicluna (Birżebbuġa Sailing Club) led the Optimist Beginners clearly ahead of club-mates Emily Mallia and Jack Vella. In the Optimist Open, MYSC’s Timmy Vassallo took the honours ahead of BSC’s Emily Fenech and Jacob Azzopardi. Jake Mallia (BSC) won ILCA 4 from Benjamin Vassallo and Daniel Ciantar, and the ILCA 6 was a Birżebbuġa family affair, with siblings Shaun and Lacey Aquilina first and second and Matthew Flores third.
Catherine Hurley and Kristian Borg Nicolas’s Careful Now won all four SB20 races, Kathleen Sammut Bowman made a clean sweep in the Topper, and Michaela Vertsoni and Nicole Siegler won an all-RMYC RS Feva fleet. Prizes were presented by RMYC Commodore David Cremona and Yachting Malta General Manager Michael Mifsud.
