Alexia wins Rolex Giraglia Cup

While Shockwave breaks another record

The record for the Giraglia Race, the offshore race of the Giraglia Rolex Cup, held by Riviera de Rimini since 1998 was broken shortly before noon on Friday by Alfa Romeo, New Zealander Neville Crichton’s 90-foot Maxi yacht. Crichton, and his mostly Antipodean crew who collected line honours in the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race in December last year, managed to shave more than two hours from the five year old record, claiming that many more hours could be removed if the conditions at the start had lasted. Alfa Romeo took line honours in every race during the Giraglia Rolex Cup week and now heads to the English Channel for the Rolex Fastnet Race in August with another course record in mind.

169 boats followed Alfa Romeo around the Giraglia Rock and into Genoa over the rest of Friday and Saturday, amongst them Raiola Raffaele’s Idea,Pierluigi Lora Piana’s My Song and Charles Dunstone’s Enigma, all three also bettered Riviera de Rimini’s 1998 reference time. Alberto Roemmers’ Maxi Alexia finished just 21 seconds outside however but managed to collect best corrected time for this double points scoring race. Alexia, lying second overall in class before the long race moved up to first overall in class and fleet. Roemmers was awarded the Giraglia Rolex Cup and a Rolex Yacht Master watch at the final prize giving ceremony at the Yacht Club Italiano on Saturday night.

The Giraglia Rolex Cup is a week long regatta incorporating three inshore races in St Tropez before the 243-mile Giraglia Race that took the fleet to Genoa via a rocky outcrop to the North of Corsica. Racing in the inshores was dominated by the Stefano Spangaro’s Class One yacht X-Sport skippered by Gabrielle Benussi. Benussi himself stepped down for the long race as he had to travel to Sardinia to prepare for the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, which start on 3rd July. X-Sport managed to win Class One again in the Giraglia Race but finished more than two hours out of the top spot in fleet.

Class Two in the Giraglia Race was won by Dominique Tian’s IMX-38 Glen Ellen, a boat that hadn’t participated in the inshores meaning that overall Class Two honours for the week went to Philippe Ettore’s A40 Ettore.

In the Giraglia Race Class Three was won by Jean Paul Brugiere’s X-332 Lexington, but it was Guy Nicolas’ First 36.7 Alcidia, finishing in fourth place in the double points scoring offshore race, that collected Class Three overall honours for the week.

Last but not least, the smallest boats in the fleet Class Four. The Giraglia Race was won by Francois Laurent’s First 32 Sietel Midi Telecom, but it was Camillo Capozzi’s Polaris 33 that had set the pace all week and wound up with the overall Class Four honours.

Conditions for the offshore were boisterous on the leg from France to Corsica where the fleet experienced winds of up to 27 knots from the South West at times. For most of the fleet the wind lasted all the way to the rock before it dropped away to finally fill in weakly from the South East creating slow sailing conditions for the remainder of the race to the
finish.

Giraglia Race - New Race Record
22 hours 13 minutes 48 seconds – average speed 10.9 knots
Alfa Romeo Reichel/Pugh Maxi Neville Crichton

Giraglia Race – IMS Final Results

Class Zero
*Alexia Reichel/Pugh Maxi Alberto Roemmers
Class One
X-Sport Gd Soleil 56R Stefano Spangaro
Class Two
Glen Ellen IMX-38 Dominique Tian
Class Three
Lexington X-332 Jean Paul Brugiere
Class Four
Ala Bianca Polaris 33 Camillo Capozzi

*Overall winner all classes

Giraglia Rolex Cup – Final Results
After 3 inshore races in St Tropez and the double points Giraglia Race

Class Zero
*Alexia Reichel/Pugh Maxi Alberto Roemmers
Class One
X-Sport Gd Soleil 56R Stefano Spangaro
Class Two
Ettore Archambault 40 Philippe Ettore
Class Three
Alcidia Beneteau First 36.7 R Guy Nicolas
Class Four
Ala Bianca Polaris 33 Camillo Capozzi
*Overall winner all classes

Giraglia Rolex Cup 2003 – Giraglia Race

Quotes:

“The long race and the record were our main objectives at the Giraglia Rolex
Cup. We enjoyed the inshore races but the long race with the strong winds
gave us the opportunity to really push the boat hard and enjoy the sailing.
Neville Crichton, owner and skipper of Alfa Romeo, shortly after collecting
line honours in the Giraglia Race and breaking the race record by more than
two hours.

“We started really well and lead all the way to Isle de Levant. After that
we were always in touch with the leaders and remained in control of the
race. On one occasion we found ourselves to windward of the fleet on a fast
reach when the wind increased. This is always the best place to be and we
benefited again from good positioning. The crew sailed well, everything went
our way.“ Mariano Parada, tactician on board Alberto Roemmers’ Argentinean
Maxi Alexia, Class Zero winner and Best Corrected Time overall.