A small but very competitive fleet of 470s participated in this year's ISAF Grade 3 Alpen-Challenge on Lake Achensee in Austria's famous mountain region Tirol.
The inaugural Alpen-Challenge was held on Lake Bodensee last year. This year the event attracted 17 boats from four nations, including number 22 in the ISAF World Match Race Rankings Eric
MONNIN (SUI) and top Austrian team in the 470 Women ISAF World Sailing Rankings Sylvia
VOGL and Carolina FLATSCHER, who had just returned from their top ten success at the ISAF Grade W 470 World Championship in San Francisco, USA.
On the three days of competition, seven races were sailed in the typical northern and southern thermal breezes which make Lake Achensee one of Austrian's top sailing areas and give it the name 'Lake Garda of the North'.
At the top of the leaderboard a battle between MONNIN and crew Lucas ERNI (SUI) and VOGL and FLATSCHER ended in a tie, which the Swiss won thanks to their four bullets. Third place also went to Switzerland in the shape of Andreas HEUSS and Pascal ABEGG, followed by Austrian's Junior Champions Michael MEISTER and Peter KNAPP. Slovenia’s Mitja MIKULIN and Sebastian PRINCIC completed the top five.
In addition to the Alpen-Challenge the Alp-Nations-Cup was settled this year, in which the best three boats of each country counted their scores. The Austrian team took a clear win in front of Switzerland and Slovenia.
The next Alpen-Challenge will be held next year on Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland.