Hurricane Elba - part two

Mumm 30 Worlds delayed with force eight conditions, reports Andy Nicholson from Elba

‘Hurricane Elba’, part duo, is delaying the start to the Mumm 30 Worlds here in Portoferrario.

Two races were completed yesterday to conclude the Moby Cup, the pre-Worlds regatta. As expected this wasn’t taken too seriously by competitors with many boats peeling off at the windward mark, happy with their boat speed and heading for the dock. For the record, the racing was won by Jimmy Pahun in Region Ile de France.

Up there in both races, in a shifty 20 knot breeze, was the familiar site of the Italtel branding that features on most of Vasco Vascotto’s steeds. Racing was very tight, with the ‘ladders’ being able to hold lanes and the ‘snakes’ getting a little too close to your competitors. There were two crashes yesterday, the most serious involving the Australians on Foreign Affair and the German boat, Rainbow.

Rainbow has been in the yard over night, having a hole repaired on her port side, just a few inches from a successful port tack duck by Foreign Affair.

It blew very hard here last night, with people even being woken from their darkened cabins deep within the good ship Moby Fantasy. Fortunately we have Peter Reggio as race officer, so no one is wandering around not knowing what’s going on. Forecast is for the big wind to die later in the day, so we should hopefully get out racing as soon as the current force eight looks like it is abating.

We had a great evening on the good ship Moby Fantasy last night, with an official opening ceremony on the pool deck followed by dinner. Roberta, Manuela and Ivan, then entertained us with some great 80s ballads in the Piano Bar.

Lets hope we do get some racing in today. Your favourite photographer, Carlo Borlenghi is here. It looks like all the pieces are now in place.