Swan 45 Gold Cup

Vertigo breaks away at midway point

After an evening dominated by protests, the second day of racing at the Swan 45 Gold Cup got underway with Marco Salvi and Alberto Signorini’s Vertigo (ITA) continuing their incredible form to win the NetJets Race Day, increasing their lead on the rest of the Swan 45 fleet by 9 points.

Racing eventually commenced following a decision by the Race Committee to delay the start and wait for the forecasted 10-12 knot southeasterly breeze to fill in. The conditions duly improved and the first of two windward / leeward races started with the hungry pack of Swan 45’s making some close calls to get the best position on the line. It was Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino (ITA), with world class sailor Vasco Vascotto onboard, that got the advantage at the pin end and led to the first mark with Vertigo and Stefan Polti’s Mintaka (ITA) completing the Italian charge to lead the fleet.

A tactical decision by Vertigo to take the left hand side of the course proved timely, as they overtook Mascalzone Latino to the second mark and maintained the lead to win the first race, despite immense pressure from Tom Stark’s Rush (USA) and Vittorio Codecasa’s Jeroboam (ITA). Vascotto, remained philosophical despite the consistent performance by Salvi and Signorini’s tight crew: “We had a good start in the first race and then played the first shift well. But it just wasn’t good enough as Vertigo overtook us on the second beat as they turned the right mark and beat us. They’ve had a really good three days.”

He continued: “I love sailing on Mascalzone Latino, first of all because I’m sailing with friends and secondly because it’s great to sail on the one-design boats. Whether or not we win will depend on how good we are and how bad Vertigo is!”

Following last night’s decision to disqualify Paolo Scerni’s Kora (ITA) and William Douglass’ Goombay Smash (USA) for a collision in yesterday’s Race One, Vertigo had all to play for in the second race of today to increase her advantage at the top of the leaderboard. A solid performance provided the results they needed to win the day, despite a vain attempt to chase lead boat, Jeroboam, who maximized on a spectacular start to finish the final race one minute ahead of Goombay Smash.

International Star sailor, Mark Reynolds commented on the results of the day as tactician on board Vertigo: “We still had to play the shifts today. It gets a little scary because you’re trying to beat one guy and protect the other. Sometimes it’s better not to worry about the best boats and just concentrate on what you’re doing – it worked for us so far. I don’t like to get too excited halfway through the regatta but our goal was to stay in the top five in all the races so I like our position so far!”

New to the Swan 45’s, Reynolds commented on the overall feel for this owner/driver class: “The Swan 45 is a beautiful boat. I am very surprised as I didn’t think we were going to have so many people and boats here but also so many good sailors. The owners are really enthusiastic about the class and having fun – that’s the most important thing to remember!”

The Swan 45 Gold Cup will continue tomorrow, Wednesday 13th October, with the ClubSwan Race Day, which will see the 20 boat fleet test their stamina in the long race with a course of between 30 – 40 miles.

	Boat	Sail No.	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5
	Owner/Helmsman		Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts
1	VERTIGO	GBR23R	2	1	9	1	3	16
	Marco Salvi/Alberto Signorini
2	JEROBOAM	ITA14235	3	12	3	6	1	25
	Vittorio Codecasa
2	MINTAKA	ITA14519	4	2	11	4	4	25
	Stefano Polti
3	MASCALZONE LATINO	ITA21210	8	4	14	2	8	36
	Vincenzo Onorato
4	OPUS ONE	GER5245	1	7	7	12	13	40
	Wolfgang Stoltz
4	RUSH	USA52225	6	8	16	3	7	40
	Thomas L. Stark
5	CUOR DI LEONE	ITA14545	5	6	17	7	12	47
	Freccia blu srl/Leonardo Ferragamo
6	CRACKERJACK	GBR6R	10	14	13	8	6	51
	Keith MILLER/Keith MILLER
7	KORA 3	ITA4541	21	3	2	20	9	55
	Paolo Scerni
7	GOOMBAY SMASH	USA45454	21	10	6	16	2	55
	William Douglass
7	PAPASTILLA	ITA545	15	12	5	5	18	55
	Fabio Montauti
7	TALJ	ITA14694	11	14	1	10	19	55
	Vittorio Ruggiero
8	AY! AY! AY!	FRA21690	9	13	10	14	11	57
	Leopoldo Gavito
9	WISC	GBR45R	17	5	4	13	20	59
	G. Williams
10	FEVER	GBR945R	14	16	12	17	5	64
	Klaus Diederichs
11	TWINS	FRA9503	21	9	8	15	16	69
	Erik Maris
12	AMNESIA	GBR17R	16	11	15	11	17	70
	Graham de Zille/Neil Cheston
13	DSK	ITA29	13	16	18	9	15	71
	Danilo Salsi
14	AXELLE S	FRA29745	7	20	20	19	10	76
	Hubert Wargny
15	PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN	GBR9050R	12	18	19	18	14	81
	Charles Swingland