New Zealand Super Maxi, Alfa Romeo, is in a class of its
own in the Giraglia Rolex Cup, taking line honours in
the first inshore race by more than 40 minutes in ideal
preparation for skipper Neville Crichton’s attempt on
the race record in the long distance race.
For
Crichton, the three days of inshore racing in St Tropez
are an opportunity to work up boat and crew in readiness
for the big race on Wednesday, the 243-miler from St
Tropez to Genoa via the Giraglia Rock off the northern
tip of Corsica. “We’re
not expecting to do well in the round-the-can racing.
We’ve measured in overlapping headsails and optimised
the boat for the long race. I don’t care how we do in
handicap racing. We’re here to win the race to Genoa and
to set a new course record.” If he
does set a new record for the race, it will be his own
record that he breaks. Sailing his previous Maxi, also
known as Alfa Romeo, Crichton set the existing record
time of 22 hours, 13 minutes, 48 seconds back in 2003.
Behind
the all-conquering Alfa Romeo, some of the world’s
greatest sailors have gathered in St Tropez to compete
at the Giraglia Rolex Cup, and yet it was a group of
friends and part-time sailing enthusiasts who won race 1
on handicap in the big boat division on a perfect Sunday
afternoon. With
the sun shining and the wind blowing 14 to 17 knots, the
113 boats couldn’t have wished for better racing.
The conditions were clearly to the liking of Paolo
Bonomo and his crew of friends on board the Canard 41
Aurora. With a slight increase in the breeze late in the
race, this worked in favour of Aurora and other boats at
the smaller end of Class 0 and Class 1. “Of
course we expected to win,” said Bonomo with a twinkle
in his eye. The reality is that in handicap racing -
where boats ranging from 30 feet up to 100 feet or more
are pitched against each other – no one can expect to
win. You just sail your best and hope that some luck
goes your way.
So when Bonomo went on to say, “We came here only to
win,” you had to take his comments with a pinch of salt.
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Watching the Alfa Romeo
yacht move through the water, spectators
have to wonder whether there is an engine driving a
propeller underwater. But no, this is a sail-powered
beast, albeit with an engine to help the crew
operate the swinging keel and the sail controls with
push-button hydraulic technology. |
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Alfa Romeo, is in a class of
its own in the Giraglia Rolex Cup, taking line
honours in the first inshore race by more than 40
minutes in ideal preparation for skipper Neville
Crichton’s attempt on the race record in the long
distance race. |
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“We are friends and some of us have sailed together for
30 years,” said the smiling Italian. So how
did it feel to beat a fleet that numbers some great
professional sailors in its ranks? “That is a problem
for them, not for us,” he laughed. On corrected time
under the IMS handicapping system, Aurora finished just
over three minutes ahead of Paul Nicolai’s French-crewed
Fauve. Nicolai’s Dufour 44 beat Clive Llewellyn’s Grand
Soleil 50, Mad IV, by just 12 seconds on corrected time.
The bigger boats enjoyed the 33-mile race around the
Gulf of St Tropez, even if the results didn’t
necessarily go their way. Neville Crichton’s
magnificent, multi-million dollar race yacht Alfa Romeo
might have finished just 29th on handicap, but the Kiwi
businessman didn’t mind. Possibly the most technically
advanced racing yacht in existence, the 98-foot
canting-keeled machine gobbled up 33-miles in just two
and a half hours, averaging over 13 knots around the
track.
Watching the boat move through the water, spectators
have to wonder whether there is an engine driving a
propeller underwater. But no, this is a sail-powered
beast, albeit with an engine to help the crew operate
the swinging keel and the sail controls with push-button
hydraulic technology.
While Alfa Romeo is set to spend the week racing in
glorious isolation at the head of the fleet, today’s
race gave a hint of a good match race developing between
two Swan 601s, Cuordileone skippered by Leonardo
Ferragamo and Artemis skippered by Torbjorn Tornquist.
The Swedish owner has three-time America’s Cup winner
and Olympic Champion Russell Coutts calling tactics, and
today Artemis prevailed over the Italian boat by 37
seconds. Coutts
commented: “We had great conditions today. It was just
perfect. I haven’t sailed many times in St Tropez when
it’s been like that. Fantastic. It’s been great to race
out there with another boat and gauge your performance.
We got a nice side of a big left-hand shift up the first
leg, so we got ahead. But then we had some spinnaker
problems during the first hoist. Cuordileone caught us
up, and that actually made it a pretty good race.”
In the small-boat division, just 21 seconds separated
the top three finishers on corrected time. Two Grand
Soleil 40s grabbed the first two places, with Alexei
Nikolaev’s Russian entry, Synergy, beating Italo
Borrini’s Despeinada by just 10 seconds. Camillo
Capozzi’s Ala Bianca finished in third place, just 11
seconds behind Despeinada. Italo Borrini has enjoyed a
strong run of form at the Giraglia Rolex Cup, winning
the small boat division in 2004 and finish runner-up in
2005, and he looks set to continue that success in 2006.
Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is
established as one of the classic regattas of the
Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the
past nine years, comprises three days’ inshore racing in
the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile
offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port
of Genoa.
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