Vertigo holds onto her lead

Penultimate day at Swan 45 Gold Cup

Thursday at the Swan 45 Gold Cup 2004 saw another fantastic day of racing off the beautiful coast of Capri, with blue skies, sunshine and winds of 10-15 knots. It was Vittorio Ruggiero’s Talj (ITA) that collected the trophy on the Yacht Club Capri Race Day with a second and third place. Eric Maris collected his first prize of the week coming second on board Twins (FRA) with Danilo Salsi’s DSK (ITA) in third.

Lying in fifth place overall on the leaderboard, thanks to four results in the top ten, it is hard to believe that Ruggiero has never been sailing before he bought his Swan 45. The Swan 45 Gold Cup is only his second ever regatta, having made his first, the recent Rolex Swan Cup. Ruggiero is clearly thrilled with his new passion: “I am a new owner, I started with the Swan 45 just a few months ago and this is my first experience with sailing – I have never sailed before. So, you can imagine I am very happy with the results of this week. The terrible thing is that I have to go back to work – that is the only problem!”

The fleet set out at 11.00am (GMT) in a southeasterly breeze on the first of two windward-leeward courses. Twins had a great start at the pin end and was first to reach the weather mark ahead of Gianni Scerni’s Kora 3 (ITA) and Danilo Salsi‘s DSK (ITA), who had Tommasso Chieffi as tactician. Stefano Polit’s Mintaka (ITA) took advantage of a wind shift on the first leeward run and gained nine places passing Kora 3 and DSK ahead of the second mark. But this was not enough to outclass the French boat, which led throughout the race and crossed the line with a comfortable lead ahead of Mintaka and Talj in third.

The second race of the day had to be re-started due to a large number of boats having an early start. When the race eventually got underway it was Leonardo Ferragamo’s Cuordileone that showed impressive form and led the fleet for the best part of the race.

As Talj took up position on her stern and consistent pressure was applied by Graham de Zille’s Amnesia (GBR) who had world renowned Navigator, Andrew Cape as tactician, Cuordileone had no time to relax. With America’s Cup sailors Ian Budgen and Paul Cayard on board, Ferragamo’s crew showed superior skill and finished the race in pole position. Budgen commented on the long awaited win in today’s second race: “We had a really good start down at the pin end and managed to maintain good boat speed. Once you are ahead in a big fleet like this, it is significantly easier as you get rid of three-quarters of the pack already. We had good pace and chose the right side of the course.”

He added: “It’s nice to win – its been a long time coming. We’ve been trying very hard all week!”

The Swan 45 Gold Cup concludes on Friday with the Morgan Stanley Race Day. As the leaderboard stands, Marco Salvi and Alberto Signorini’s Vertigo (ITA) maintains her position at the top, Mintaka has moved into second place and Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino to third.

	Boat	Sail No.	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8
	Owner/Helmsman		Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts	Pts
1	VERTIGO	GBR23R	2	1	9	1	3	18	4	7	45
	Marco Salvi/Alberto Signorini
2	MINTAKA	ITA14519	4	2	11	4	4	10	2	13	50
	Stefano Polti
3	MASCALZONE LATINO	ITA21210	8	4	14	2	8	5	11	4	56
	Vincenzo Onorato
4	OPUS ONE	GER5245	1	7	7	12	13	4	8	10	62
	Wolfgang Stoltz
5	RUSH	USA52225	6	8	16	3	7	2	6	16	64
	Thomas L. Stark
6	TALJ	ITA14694	11	14	1	10	19	12	3	2	72
	Vittorio Ruggiero
7	CUOR DI LEONE	ITA14545	5	6	17	7	12	13	15	1	76
	Freccia blu srl/Leonardo Ferragamo
8	JEROBOAM	ITA14235	3	12	3	6	1	20	16	19	80
	Vittorio Codecasa
9	GOOMBAY SMASH	USA45454	21	10	6	16	2	1	14	11	81
	William Douglass
10	AY! AY! AY!	FRA21690	9	13	10	14	11	7	10	9	83
	Leopoldo Gavito
10	CRACKERJACK	GBR6R	10	14	13	8	6	9	9	14	83
	Keith MILLER/Keith MILLER
11	PAPASTILLA	ITA545	15	12	5	5	18	3	21	8	87
	Fabio Montauti
12	TWINS	FRA9503	21	9	8	15	16	16	1	6	92
	Erik Maris
13	DSK	ITA29	13	16	18	9	15	14	5	5	95
	Danilo Salsi
13	KORA 3	ITA4541	21	3	2	20	9	8	12	20	95
	Paolo Scerni
14	AMNESIA	GBR17R	16	11	15	11	17	11	13	3	97
	Graham de Zille/Neil Cheston
15	WISC	GBR45R	17	5	4	13	20	15	18	12	104
	G. Williams
16	FEVER	GBR945R	14	16	12	17	5	6	21	18	109
	Klaus Diederichs
17	PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN	GBR9050R	12	18	19	18	14	17	7	17	122
	Charles Swingland
18	AXELLE S	FRA29745	7	20	20	19	10	19	17	15	127
	Hubert Wargny