Puri Negri moves into pole

With inshore racing complete at the Giraglia Rolex Cup

Atalanta II has put herself in pole position to repeat last year's overall victory in the Giraglia Rolex Cup. Owner Carlo Puri Negri steered his 70ft IMS racing yacht to second place in today's short 19 mile race around the coast line near St Tropez. Combined with an 8th and 3rd place in the other inshore races, Puri Negri goes into tomorrow's 243-mile Giraglia Race with a good chance of emulating his victory last year.

Today's race was unexpectedly short after the wind filled in across the Gulf of St Tropez. Puri Negri commented: "It was a shame about the short race, but the wind came in stronger than the race committee expected. We had 8 knots building up to 15 knots, with flat water. It was a perfect day."

What would make a perfect week for Puri Negri, however, would be a victory in the Giraglia Race itself. He has won the long race with his previous yacht Grampus and came close in 2004 with a 2nd place aboard Atalanta II. But the win with his IMS-optimised 70-footer yet eludes him. Carlo Puri Negri remains hopeful but knows that of the 184 entrants there are many with a good chance of success. "My tactician Gabriele Benussi leaves us after today, so I'm losing a key man for the long race to Genoa. It's hard to say how we will do in that race. You need to sail well, and you need some luck for the Giraglia Race."

After finishing outside the time limit yesterday, Clive Llewellyn's Mad IV took her revenge with victory in the big boat division race. The Grand Soleil 50 beat Atalanta II by 38 seconds on corrected time. This result, along with her 3rd place in the first inshore race two days ago, gives Mad IV's crew hope of a good result in the offshore race, which starts at midday on Wednesday. Crewman Martin Vitry will be hoping for similar conditions to today's race. "With a heavy boat, we like a combination of flat water and strong wind like we had today." His wish could well come true with the prospect of good winds carrying the bigger boats at least as far as the Giraglia Rock, off the northern tip of Corsica. After that, the wind remains uncertain, and veterans of the Giraglia Race are well acquainted with just how tricky and frustrating those final 70 miles to Genoa can be.

So rapid is the canting-keeled Alfa Romeo, that the Giraglia Race record of 22 hours, 13 minutes, 48 seconds (set by Neville Crichton's previous Alfa Romeo maxi in 2003) looks under serious threat. However, this is a highly-loaded, technically challenging yacht - as the crew were reminded today when one of the crucial checkstays broke. Anchored to the stern of the boat and rising up to the middle of the mast, the checkstay adds vital support to the highly-stressed carbon mast. When the high-tension fibre snapped with two miles to the finish, Crichton called for the mainsail to come down as a precautionary measure. Navigator Murray Spence explained: "We could have carried on if we'd wanted to, but we dropped the mainsail and did the last couple of miles with just the jib. We were still doing 10 knots with the jib but we probably should have been doing 15 or 16 knots. It probably cost us 5 minutes through the water."

Alfa Romeo finished a lowly 32nd on handicap today, although Crichton has said from the outset that being first to the finish of the long race in a new record time is all that interests him. Early analysis of the weather gives Alfa Romeo's navigator reason to believe the record is beatable. "It looks like a beat down to the Porquerolles in 15 knots, then a reach to the Giraglia Rock and fading a bit towards the end, then a lightish run up to the finish," said Spence. "There don't look to be too many holes in the gradient wind. It looks okay. So the record is probably pretty close. We don't need a lot of breeze to be up to full speed. If we can keep moving we've got a reasonably good show of doing the record."

The result that interests the vast majority of the 184 entrants, however, is race victory on corrected time under the IMS system. After winning today's race by over a minute and a half on handicap, Alexei Nikolaev's Grand Soleil 40RC Synergy also wins the overall inshore regatta, counting two 1st places and a 5th. The Russian team is established as a firm favourite for the long race, although another Grand Soleil 40, Italo Borrini's Despeinada, will be in close contention too. A 4th place in today's race gives Borrini 2nd overall in the inshore series ahead of a closely-matched trio of IMX 40s, and Borrini knows how to win. In 2004 he dominated the regatta from start to finish, winning both the inshore and offshore races.

Before tomorrow's spectacular start of the Giraglia Race, before the seafront of picturesque St Tropez, the sailors go to the prizegiving and dinner to celebrate the end of the inshore series. This takes place at La Citadelle, on the hill overlooking St Tropez, with prizes awarded to the best placed yachts from the past three days' racing.

Now in its 54th year, the Giraglia Rolex Cup is established as one of the classic regattas of the Mediterranean. The regatta, sponsored by Rolex for the past nine years, comprises three days' inshore racing in the Bay of St Tropez, and culminates in the 243-mile offshore race via the Giraglia Rock to the Italian port of Genoa.

Provisional Results on corrected time (IMS system) - Giraglia Rolex Cup Race 3

Class 0-1

1 Mad IV - Clive Llewellyn (FRA) - Grand Soleil 50 - 01:11:15
2 Atalanta II - Carlo Puri Negri (ITA) - Farr 70 IMS Racer - 01:11:53
3 Edimetra VI - Ernesto Gismondi (ITA) - 65-foot Maxi - 01:13:18

Class 2-5

1 Synergy - Alexei Nikolaev (RUS) - Grand Soleil 40RC - 02:17:58
2 Vagabond - Jean-Claude Bertrand (FRA) - First 36.7 Racing - 02:19:33
3 Citta di Genova - Maurizio Postani/ Marcell de Gasperi (ITA) - Vrolijk 37 - 02:19:51

Provisional Results - Overall after completion of the inshore series

Class 0-1

1 Atalanta II - Carlo Puri Negri (ITA) - Farr 70 IMS Racer - 13 points
2 Edimetra VI - Ernesto Gismondi (ITA) - 65-foot Maxi - 18 points
3 Brave - George Vasilopoulos (GRE) - Farr 520 - 28 points

Class 2-5

1 Synergy - Alexei Nikolaev (RUS) - Grand Soleil 40 RC - 7 points
2 Despeinada - Italo Borrini (ITA) - Grand Soleil 40R - 10 points
3 Clean Energy - Alberto Cogni (ITA) - IMX 40 - 11 points