2-0 to Crichton

Mid race restart sees Alfa Romeo nail race win at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

A 30-mile almost complete circumnavigation of the Archipelago de La Maddalena, with a light north easterly breeze of 7-9 knots, was the feature of the second day of the 2006 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup on Tuesday.

The course, selected by the Race Committee for organisers, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, led all the competitors but the Spirit of Tradition yachts to an initial upwind leg, followed, for all, by a close reach towards the Monaci rocks and a long tight reach on starboard tack towards the islet of Barettinelli di Fuori on the outer edge of the archipelago. The fleet then headed down the channel, where the crews had to zigzag between semi-submerged rocks, ferries and frequent wind shifts. Out of the archipelago, the boats headed for a mark in the Gulf of Pevero and the finish line outside Porto Cervo.

The Spirit of Tradition yachts, first at the gun, suffered a slow start due to the light winds, but were eventually able to pick up some speed and disengage from the rest of the fleet, still waiting for their start. The match of the day for this division was undoubtedly the closely fought one between the giant 55-metre Adela and the sleek 38-metre Hetairos, who throughout the race displayed their full and amazing array of sails. However, it was the much smaller 23-metre Annagine of C.E. Van Asbeck's from Holland that won on handicap, followed by Hetairos.

The leaders of the Racing division fought an interesting battle where some made big gains and others suffered big losses. As expected, it was the two Super Maxis, Alfa Romeo and her near sister ship Wild Oats XI, who stole the show. After yesterday's missed line honours, Alfa Romeo was able to claim the coveted double victory - line honours with a 9 minutes-plus margin over Wild Oats, and a win on handicap. Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory from Germany finished second on corrected time, followed by another German entry, Claus Peter Offen's Y3K with America's Cup sailor and former match race world champion Karol Jablonski on board. Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI, second on real time, came in fourth on handicap.

“We got off the line pretty well” commented Crichton. “We were fortunate to beat [Wild] Oats up the beat and from there on we just extended the lead”. Approximately half way through the course, where the channel narrows and curves, the yachts encountered a large windless patch. Alfa Romeo was first to hit this no-go zone, but was able to find an easy escape route, dropping the chute and sailing away under jib. According to Crichton, his crew had foreseen this tricky situation and came up with a preventive plan: “We put a guy up the rig early on inside the islands, from the time we went around the first gybe at Barettinelli, and so we could see where the wind was and where it wasn't. We knew we were going to be headed and it was only a matter of when. We knew exactly when it would happen, we planned to do what we did and it went as planned.”

As for his immediate competitors, Crichton wondered if they actually saw the wind shift until they hit it. Bob Oatley's Wild Oats XI appeared to be trying to cut some corners and sail up to the shores of La Maddalena. In doing so, the boat was caught on the wrong side of a shift that left her stranded, completely stalled. At this point Wild Oats XI was only a minute and half behind Alfa Romeo and probably still in the hunt. But as the Australian crew waited for the wind to fill in, they watched Crichton and crew sail away, almost over the horizon and into an untouchable lead. Even worse, looking back up the channel, the Wild Oat's XI crew must have momentarily feared the daunting prospect of being caught by their other chasing rivals. Eventually, she was able to escape, sail out of the hole and head towards the Gulf of Pevero.

Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory from Germany was third on real time. American Olympic Star gold medallist, round the world and America's Cup veteran Steve Erickson, sailing on Morning Glory, felt the Race Committee chose wisely the day's race course: “The race was extremely light, I don't think it got over 8 knots - which is still ok, because these yachts make their own wind. At one time, in 8 knots of wind, our boat was doing 13.5 knots which for me is still surprisingly fast. These yachts cover some miles, as long as you're not going straight upwind or downwind. I think the Race Committee did a nice job by calling the round the islands course, people enjoy it, it's pretty and it's still a race.” Regarding the tactical challenges faced along the way, Erickson commented: “There was one little place at the bottom of La Maddalena where there was a light spot and where the lead boats had a little difficulty passing through. Some people were able to jump on the opportunity of what they saw ahead. We lost a little to the boat behind us but we gained a little on the boat ahead of us. The leading boat went the longest way around, while the second placed boat, Wild Oats, probably tried to cut the corner and lost a lot. We came in second [on handicap] and the 100-footers are beatable, although they sail well. We are the small boat of the big brother and we will see how tomorrow comes”.

The third division to start, the Wally class, was led around the course once again by Great Britain's Magic Carpet Squared owned by Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, who claimed line honours 12 minutes ahead of Galeazzo Pecori Giraldi's Tiketitan from Italy. Jean Charles Decaux's J One, who yesterday won on handicap, was caught early at the start, scoring a less exciting fifth. Carlo Sama's Tango came in second on handicap, followed by Dark Shadow.

Among the Cruising Division, it was Italian entry Roma of Filippo Faruffini that claimed the double victory, on the water with a 2-minute lead on American Arne Glimcher's Ghost, and on handicap by seven minutes over Velsheda. Former Olympian Paolo Semeraro, skipper of Roma, commented that, “the courses here are always beautiful, ideal for these types of boats. Today we missed some of the downwind stuff that we had yesterday, however we sailed more upwind. The real critical passage was around La Maddalena where we chose to stay close to shore and got stalled with no wind. We lost some ground on the leaders, but were able to gain some on the rest of the pack. Ghost overtook us here, but in the last upwind leg we caught them again”. Velsheda came in second on handicap, followed by Gunter Herz's Allsmoke from the UK.

In the Mini Maxi division, with an almost carbon copy situation as yesterday, Carlo Puri Negri's Atalanta II won line honours, but it was Giorgio Ruffo's Aleph who claimed the victory on handicap. With two straight firsts, Aleph is now leading the overall class results, followed by Atalanta II and Massimo Violati's Ops 5. American Clay Deutsch, who has shipped his Swan 68 Chippewa from the US to compete in the Mini Maxi division, lies in fourth.

Current provisional standings:

Racing
1. ALFA ROMEO Neville Crichton NZL, 1/1/2.0
2. MORNING GLORY Hasso Platner GER, 3/2/5.0
3. WILD OATS Robert I. Oatley AUS, 2/4/6.0

VOR
1. ABN AMRO ONE ABN Amro Brand NED, 1/1/2.0
2. AMER SPORT TOO Giovanni Marangon EUR, 2/2/4.0

Cruising
1. ROMA Filippo Faruffini ITA, 2/1/3.0
2. VELSHEDA Tarbat Investments GBR, 1/2/3.0
3. ALLSMOKE Gunter Herz GER, 3/3/6.0

Spirit of Tradition
1. ANNAGINE C. E. Van Asbeck NED, 2/1/3.0
2. HETAIROS Rockport Ltd CAY IS, 1/2/3.0
3. ADELA George Lindemann USA, 3/3/6.0

Mini Maxi
1. ALEPH Giorgio Ruffo ITA, 1/1/2.0
2. ATALANTA II Carlo Puri Negri ITA, 4/3/7
3. OPS 5 Massimo Violati ITA, 2/5/7.0

Wally
1. MAGIC CARPET SQUARED Lindsay Owen Jones GBR, 2/1/3.0
2. TANGO Carlo Sama MON, 3/2/5.0
3. J ONE Jean Charles Decaux GBR, 1/5/6.0

More pictures on page two...