USA into the lead

After a day of heavy wind racing at the Sardinia Rolex Cup

With heavy westerly winds between 25 to 34 knots, the fleet of seven teams competing in the Sardinia Rolex Cup, hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, re-sailed the 26 mile distance race that was abandoned in yesterday's light air. In today's hard fought race, teamwork was critical as crews fought to keep control of the boats that reached speeds as high as 18 knots. The United States team claimed first with 31 points while Spain dropped to second with 34 points. Switzerland is third with 44 points while Italy Red secured fourth with 48 points.

All three U.S. team boats finished well today with Bambakou, Mascalzone Latino and Talisman taking first in the Farr 40, Swan 45 and IMS rated classes respectively.

"It was a spectacular day of racing," said Terry Hutchinson, skipper of the Talisman. "We burned through three spinnaker sheets, yet with phenomenal crew work, we were able to have a solid race with a strong finish. It was a great day for the U.S. team."

"During the first beat, we had a port starboard encounter with Bambakou," said Pablo Iglesias, tactician on Bribon Telefonica MoviStar. "Our penalty turn put us behind the rest of the fleet. Combined with a spinnaker sheet the popped off, we could not make up the time. However, the rest of our team did well, taking two second places."

X-Prozac ripped the leech on its main sail prior to the beginning of the race, asked for and was granted a 15-minute postponement. Unable to repair the sail prior to the start, she sailed around the entire course with the damaged sail.

"It was a great day of sailing with many challenges," noted Gabriele Benussi, skipper of X-Prozac. "Not having a main that was one hundred percent certainly didn't help, however, we were able to come in second due to excellent teamwork."

Results:
1 ITA21210 MASCALZONE LATINO Vincenzo Onorato USA SWAN 45 OD 0 0 2 1 1 4
1 USA482 TALISMAN Marco Birch USA B/C 58' 1 3 1 1 1 7
1 USA52104 BAMBAKOU John Coumantaros USA FARR 40 OD 3 4 6 6 1 20
Total: 31

2 ITA2272 NERONE MERIDIANA Massimo Mezzaroma SPAIN FARR 40 OD 0 2 1 2 2 7
2 GBR23R MERIDIANA TELEFONICA Marco Salvi /Alberto Signorin SPAIN SWAN 45 OD 3 0 3 3 2 11
2 ESP7010 BRIBON TELEFONICA Pedro Campos SPAIN EVENTO 46 2 1 2 6 5 16
Total: 34

3 ITA4038 MADINA Dario Ferrari SWISS FARR 40 OD 1 1 5 4 7 18
3 ITA545 PAPASTILLA - THURAYA Fabio Montauti SWISS SWAN 45 OD 1 1 4 5 3 14
3 ITA121 X-PROZAC Bruno Frank SWISS GRAND SOLEIL 56 R 0 0 6 4 2 12
Total: 44

4 ITA2945 DSK Danilo Salsi ITALY RED SWAN 45 OD 0 0 6 4 4 14
4 ITA149 ORLANDA Alessandro Pirera ITALY RED FARR 53 3 4 3 2 4 16
4 ITA13711 TWT Marco Rodolfi ITALY RED FARR 40 OD 2 6 3 1 6 18
Total: 48

5 ITA14525 JEROBOAM CA NOVA Vittorio Codecasa ITALY BLUE SWAN 45 OD 2 3 1 8 6 20
5 ITA235 QQ8 WORLD CARGO Roberto Maffini ITALY BLUE EVENTO 46 4 2 4 5 3 18
5 FRA007 TWINS 2 Erik Maris ITALY BLUE FARR 40 OD 0 0 2 5 4 11
Total: 49

6 ITA14351 SEAWONDER Vittorio Urbinati GERMANY MC 46 0 0 5 3 6 14
6 GER5055 STRUNTJE LIGHT Wolfgang Shaefer GERMANY FARR 40 OD 4 3 4 7 3 21
6 GER5245 OPUS ONE Wolfgang Stolz GERMANY SWAN 45 OD 4 2 5 2 7 20
Total: 55

7 ITA1161 SEVEN Cristian Frers ARGENTINA FARR 40 OD 5 7 7 3 5 27
7 ITA14545 CUORDILEONE Freccia Blu srl ARGENTINA SWAN 45 OD 5 5 7 6 5 28
Total: 72