To aficionados of sports cars and high performance racing machines, the name ‘Alfa Romeo’ has a very special place in the history of motoring. ‘Alfa Romeo’ is the world famous name of an Italian manufacturer of sporty cars from Milan which will be celebrating a centenary of unrivalled achievement in just a few years time.

But bring up that famous name — Alfa Romeo — to a fan of ocean racing and, in particular, maxi-yacht ocean racing, and the reaction will be one of intense respect and enthusiasm because, as if Alfa Romeo wasn’t a king of the roads, there is another ‘Alfa Romeo’ which is proving to be the number one racing yacht in the world. This is Alfa Romeo, the racing yacht which has built a reputation in the last five years as one of the world’s fastest, most advanced and highly successful offshore maxis. Today, on sea as well as on land, Alfa Romeo is at the pinnacle of sport, pushing the envelope forward.

The chance to sail with Alfa Romeo – an opportunity that doesn’t come around everyday – is one to jump at, and it is with the anticipation of an exciting few days on the water that Italiaspeed heads to Portsmouth to join up with the team as they prepare to tackle the Rolex Fastnet race – Europe’s most important yacht race, which involves a mad dash by approximately 300 boats from Cowes on the Isle of Wight over unforgiving and often treacherous seas, swept along by wild and unpredictable winds, to a lighthouse at the tip of Ireland and then back again, ending in to Plymouth. Yachtsmen call the Fastnet one of the world’s classic races; the rest of the world calls it a very, very dangerous undertaking even under the best of circumstances. The idea of racing over this hypnotically lethal course simply ups the odds against making it all in one piece.

Alfa Romeo is berthed at the grand-sounding Endeavour Quay in Gosport, a sprawling naval town located on the headland opposite Portsmouth. Murray Spence, the ship’s manager, is tasked with looking after errant ‘landlubbers’ aboard this technological masterpiece. On the phone as we arranged the ride his deep Australian tones were all friendly and reassuring, but would this seafarer be impressed at a couple of urbanites with very little experience at sea, especially if we got underfoot at the wrong time as this well-honed team of sailors were building up for one of the toughest – and most dangerous – challenges they would face this year, the classic and to-be-respected-or-else Fastnet. Make no mistake, the eight-decade old Fastnet is truly dangerous, a race to be respected and feared. Into legend has gone the edition where a hurricane sprung up, and casually wiped out half the fleet. In that race, Ted Turner of cable-TV fame, earned legendary status for racing through the wind and seas as boats about him went down for the count with stunning regularity. One casualty: Simon Le Bon, the lead singer of Duran Duran, saw his beloved Drum slip beneath the waves when nature overtook the will of man. In other words: racing the Fastnet is serious business under the best of conditions.

Alfa Romeo has already been in Gosport for a dozen days when we turn up. It arrived in the UK on a containership, and was ‘unpacked’ before spending several days on the quay being re-assembled for racing and then carefully checked over before being lowered into the dark, moody waters of the Solent which lazily slap the narrow jetty. Today will be Alfa Romeo’s first day out at sea, to be immediately followed by a day of round the island racing and then three more preparation days prior to the start of the Fastnet, the headliner on this race meeting.

In the type of neat twist that only coincidence can provide, the first Alfa Romeo yacht (now sold on and renamed Rambler) is moored alongside – and the huge step between this previous and latest generation of ocean-going racer is graphically demonstrated as Alfa Romeo “2” towers over its predecessor.

Some background to set the stage: The honours-soaked Alfa Romeo yachting story kicks off almost exactly five years ago when highly-successful New Zealand skipper Neville Crichton launched his latest racing yacht.
 

The new boat was initially dubbed as ‘Alfa Romeo’ to project publicity for the for the Italian brand as he had recently become the official Australian and New Zealand importer. What better way to promote a legend on land then by creating new legend on the sea?

Alfa Romeo “1” made the best possible start to its budding racing career by taking line honours in its first race, the legendary, Christmas Holiday season dash from Sydney to Hobart, regarded by many as probably the toughest yacht race in the world, a race so dangerous that America’s Cup competitor Larry Ellison swore off offshore ocean racing competition after his last run in the Hobart-Sydney. From this auspicious start Alfa Romeo then went on a two-year winning spree around Europe, proving its’ reputation was more-than-well-deserved. Alfa Romeo—both boat and crew—took line honours with meticulous precision in all the big events: the Barcelona, Trofeo Zegna, Middle Sea Race and Maxi Worlds as well as the Fastnet four years ago, the last time this Neville Crichton and his crew took on the epic, challenging 608-mile race.

Neville then upped the stakes - he commissioned Alfa Romeo “2”. This state of the art yacht – designed in the US by Reichel and Pugh, one of America’s premier designers of racing boats, and built at the McConaghy yard in Sydney – didn’t simply push the technological envelope forward - it picked it up and tore it into tiny little pieces. The new boat was 30 metres (90 foot) long (2.5 m longer than Alfa Romeo ‘1’), 5.2 metres wide (more than half a metre narrower) and with a towering 44 metre high mast (a whopping six metres higher). It could carry a third more sail and featured a revolutionary ‘canting’ keel as well as twin rudders. The hull, rudder and mast – as well as the tiny individual details - are all carbon-composite.

Think all the world’s great speed technology is in Grand Prix cars and sports cars? Think again. And think about one other huge factor that makes yacht design such a “black art”—the road doesn’t move while you go over it in a Grand Prix car, but the sea is constantly in motion as a boat passes through it, adding yet another difficult element to the challenge.

Despite bristling with all this new technology – it was barely 2 tons heavier. The resulting evolutionary monster – launched on 22 July 2005 - took its place amongst breed of yachts known as Super Maxis that have now taken over the world stage, imperious ocean-going machines that have stamped their authority in no uncertain terms on the most prestigious Regattas around the world. There are just half a dozen Super Maxi yachts in the world, but when they’re in town the only big action is as they scrabble amongst themselves for supremacy of the waves. A Super Maxi makes an America’s Cup yacht look like a day sailor’s craft, the boats are on steroids, for the Super Maxis are the machines that not only are used for match racing, or round the island dashes, but the ultimate challenge—offshore ocean racing, crossing the seas in weather both good and horrendous for the ultimate test of both man and machine.

With a substantial history to live up, Alfa Romeo ‘2’ has seamlessly picked up where its predecessor had left off – by winning the biggest races. Last spring Neville brought his fearsome new machine and battle-hardened crew to Europe and the victories just kept rolling in; already this year he has added the winner’s cups from the Hublot Palmavela Rolex and Giraglia Regattas to his groaning trophy cabinet. Now Alfa Romeo was in town and counting down to the Rolex Fastnet Race – and nothing less than victory was the team’s target. And they fancied a tilt at the course record: 53 hours and 8 minutes. The best always want to take on the best and this race meeting and this team are no exception to the rule.

by Edd Ellison