Another light day

Cream rises to the top on penultimate day of Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

After a day of rest and a superb gala evening at the Cala di Volpe hotel, the crews competing in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, resumed their week-long battle. With only one race day to go, Alfa Romeo is leading in Racing by 4 points, Roma has a 1 point cushion in Cruising as does Hetairos in Spirit of Tradition.. Atalanta II now heads the Mini Maxi by 5 points. Magic Carpet Squared leads the Wally class by 3 points.

With a forecast of a north westerly gradient wind gradually building during the day, the Race Committee decided to split the fleets on three different race courses: the Spirit of Tradition sailed a 29-mile clockwise circumnavigation of the Archipelago de La Maddalena; the Cruising and Mini Maxi raced on a 30-mile passage, with an initial upwind leg, then inside the archipelago around the island of Spargi and back down the channel to the Gulf of Pevero and the finish off Porto Cervo. The other two divisions, including the all-star crews in Racing, sailed around the cans completing two races on a traditional windward-leeward course. The wind gradually picked up from 6 knots to over 10 knots.

As expected, the Racing division was dominated by the two giant super maxis Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats XI: the latter claimed a double win in the first race of the day - line honours and on handicap - while rival Neville Crichton claimed victory on corrected time in the second race (race five). With a total of four firsts and one second (now discarded under the Sailing Instructions), Alfa Romeo is leading its fleet with a comfortable 4-point margin over Wild Oats. Double Olympic Gold and Silver Medallist Ben Ainslie, who shares the helm with Neville Crichton on Alfa Romeo, summed up today's races: "The first race was very light at the start; ourselves and Wild Oats went out to the right. We came back to cover the fleet, while they went all the way to the lay line and that was the right call for them; they got out in front. They sailed a really good race to their credit and just beat us on handicap. In the second race we had a really nice start and were in control of the fleet and then unfortunately on the last gybe into the leeward mark our winch slipped out of gear so we fluffed the gybe and they got passed us, but we were able to hold on close enough to take the race on handicap so I think that is good for us overall in winning the regatta." Regarding the performance of Morning Glory, their other rival, Ainslie commented: "I thought they would be more competitive on the windward/leeward courses. It's hard for them because ourselves and Oats get out a long way ahead and they are in no mans' land. It must be hard to judge the performance of the boat."

Having scored two thirds in today's races, Hasso Plattner's maxZ86 Morning Glory from Germany now lies in third. This canting keel maxi turbo sled boasts an impressive crew, which includes the likes of Dutch Volvo Ocean Race skipper Bouwe Bekking, American Olympic and America's Cup sailor Morgan Larson and American Olympic Star gold medallist, round the world and America's Cup veteran Steve Erickson. Larson, who has sailed in Porto Cervo many times before but never at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, feels that the bigger boats of the fleet have a little edge: "Today was a bit like the rest of the week, where it seems that the bigger is better. Not only do they [the super maxis] have a little bit of an edge in the rating, but they are sailing better. We still have an outside chance for second, so tomorrow we will be fighting as hard as we can for that." Larson is definitely enjoying sailing a maxi in Porto Cervo: "I think it's great sailing and the boats are a lot of fun. Sailing here is always exciting because of the scenery and the geography and the history. I have sailed in Porto Cervo many times but never at the maxis, it's really exciting - the rocks come in fast! Hopefully tomorrow we'll get a little more wind as is forecasted. It should be an exciting finish to a great week."

In the Wally division Magic Carpet Squared won in the first race and Dark Shadow in the second. The former is leading the overall scores by 3 points over Dark Shadow. Carlo Sama's Tango lies in third.

Filippo Faruffini's Roma from Italy is still dominating the Cruising division, with a narrow 1-point margin over the British J-Class Velsheda. Gunter Herz's Allsmoke from the UK lies in third. In today's coastal race, Arne Glimcher's Ghost from the US claimed line honours ahead of Roma, however it was Velsheda who won on handicap. After the first windward leg, the fleet came to a standstill when the wind dropped off completely. The Mini Maxi division, which started next, was able to reach the Cruising yachts, as described in detail by CEO of North Marine Group, Tom Whidden, sailing on Ghost: "Most of the boats in our class had a pretty even start and it seemed that to go to the shore was the best option. We all did that and Fantasticaaa lead at the top mark, followed by Roma and us. As we went into the Gulf of Saline, the wind died completely and every boat in the fleet, including the Mini Maxi, were all next to each other - so it was as if the race started all over again."

Olympic Gold and Silver medallist Rod Davis, who has 10 America's Cup campaigns to his credit, is sailing on Velsheda, and this his debut on a J-Class: "This is my first time racing on a boat as big as this. It's interesting because you have to plan everything way in advance, if you go to change spinnakers it takes five minutes, if you change your mind on what jib you want it is 10 minutes - everything is a major. It's eight revolutions lock-to-lock on the wheel, so getting out of people's way is sometimes a little difficult. But so far we've had a good regatta, I think it will all come down to tomorrow's race." Summing up today's race, which included a little swimming 'break', Davis felt: "We had a good race today, we actually led the entire fleet for a while, which was great for us because we are the lowest rated boat although we are the biggest, the heaviest and we have the most furniture. We did have one little slip up, where one of the boys rolled out of the foredeck when we were taking the spinnaker down, fortunately he was strong enough to hang on and they dragged him back on board. With this boat you don't even feel it, the speed difference is nothing."

The Mini Maxi division's results this morning suffered a serious shake up, following a request by the Organising Committee to perform a series of routine measurement checks on Roma and Aleph, respective overall leaders of the Cruising and Mini Maxi fleets. While Roma remained unaffected by the inspections, the Race Committee filed a protest against Aleph due to some irregularities reported by the Technical Committee. The International Jury inflicted on Aleph a 50% place penalty for the first three races, all to be scored as DNE (Did Not Enter). As a consequence, this morning Giorgio Ruffo's entry had dropped from first to sixth in the overall scorings. Carlo Puri Negri Atalanta II from Italy today took line honours and scored a third on handicap and is now the overall leader with a series of consistent results. The two Italian teams of Edimetra and Ops 5, lie in second and third, both with a 5 point delta from Atalanta II.

Hetairos is leading in the Spirit of Tradition division, after scoring a third in today's coastal race, followed by Annagine and Adela, the largest yacht of the fleet. The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in conjunction with the International Maxi Association (IMA), will end tomorrow, Saturday 9 September, with the final prize giving ceremony.

Top three results:

Racing
1. ALFA ROMEO Neville Crichton NZL, 1/1/1/(2)/1/4.0
2. WILD OATS Robert I. Oatley AUS, 2/(4)/3/1/2/9.0
3. MORNING GLORY Hasso Platner GER, 3/2/2/3/(3)/10.0

VOR
1. ABN AMRO ONE ABN Amro Brand NED, 1/1/1/1/(1)/4.0
2. AMER SPORT TOO Giovanni Marangon EUR, 2/2/2/2/(2)/8.0

Cruising
1. ROMA Filippo Faruffini ITA, 2/1/1/3/7.0
2. VELSHEDA Tarbat Investments GBR, 1/2/4/1/8.0
3. ALLSMOKE Gunter Herz GER, 3/3/3/2/11.0

Spirit of Tradition
1. HETAIROS Rockport Ltd CAY IS, 1/2/1/3/7.0
2. ANNAGINE C. E. Van Asbeck NED, 2/1/3/2/8.0
3. ADELA George Lindemann USA, 3/3/2/4/12.0

Mini Maxi
1. ATALANTA II Carlo Puri Negri ITA, 4/3/1/3/11.0
2. EDIMETRA Ernesto Gismondi ITA, 3/6/6/1/16.0
3. OPS 5 Massimo Violati ITA, 2/5/5/4/16.0

Wally
1. MAGIC CARPET SQUARED Lindsay Owen Jones GBR, 2/1/(4)/1/2/6.0
2. DARK SHADOW Antexis Ltd MON (5)/3/1/4/1/9.0
3. TANGO Carlo Sama MON, 3/2/2/2/(5)/9.0

Racing, VOR and Wally Divisions have completed Race 5 and now have a discard