Mean Machine back in the groove

Peter de Ridder's 2006 Breitling MedCup winner gets two bullets on opening day of Trophy of Portugal regatta

Peter de Ridder and his razor sharp 2006 Breitling MedCup champion crew on Valle Romano Mean Machine proved the masters of the big breeze today as they opened the Trophy of Portugal regatta off Portimao with a seventh and two wins to round off a thrilling opening day with a lead of one point ahead of Russell Coutts and the crew of Torbjorn Tornqvist's Artemis.

With the northwesterly wind gusting to 24 knots and averaging in the low 20s for most of the second two contests today, racing was as testing as it was exciting.

Although the waters remained relatively flat there was no room for crewing errors, especially on the gennaker hoists and downwind gybes any small mistakes were heavily punished. It was without question the most exciting day's racing for over year of Breitling Med Cup racing.

Proving that they have speed to burn in the breeze, Stuart Robinson and the crew of Stay Calm replicated exactly what they did in practice on Monday, and led the 18 finishers home by more than one minute. But the chances of a repeat performance by Stay Calm in the second race were extinguished when their main halyard failed and they had to retire to effect a repair. Stay Calm's troubles were not over, as they were called over the start line in the third race, but still managed to battle back to earn a fourth and lie eighth overall.

Valle Romano Mean Machine were smart off the start line, and twice broke to the right, inshore side of the course early. In the second race they held Bribon, with James Spithill enjoying his first race on a TP52, on the helm, 33 seconds astern while Artemis added a third to their second.

And in the final race of today's trio de Ridder and crew twice got the better of Alberto Roemmers' Copa del Rey-winning Siemens on the downwind legs thanks to precise gybing angles and riding the biggest gusts, as called by afterguard Ray Davies and Tom Dodson, to score their second win by 18 seconds while Thierry Peponnet drove Balearia across the line in Siemens' wake to take third.

"I think the venue is excellent," remarked de Ridder. "A great breeze makes it really fun to sail these boats and really exploit the planing conditions that they really were made for. And it is nice to be on top of the results again. It was down to a bit of everything today. It was down to good starts, and our afterguard Ray Davies, Tom Dodson and Jules Salter did a great job of positioning us well on the race course, and our trimmers did an excellent job ensuring the boat really stayed well balanced and felt excellent."

De Ridder continued: "The new boats are definitely a little bit quicker but I think we proved that if you sail smart you can still win. We had a little dip I think in the two events in Mallorca. In Portals we ended up with two 25s for disqualifications and without them we would have been third overall. And I think that at Copa del Rey we were just out of whack a bit. But if you look at today's first race it was five new boats, Anonimo and us." ( Anonimo is Valle Romano Mean Machine's sistership ).

Ado Stead, Stay Calm's tactician was far from despondent at having missed out on a race when their 2007 Judel Vrolijk design is so evidently on song in the stronger winds: "What happens happens. It was great racing and we are happy to come away with a one and four. The guys and girls on our boat put everything into it and did a great job.

"We had a problem with the inboard end of a batten and that affected the main halyard. After one of the recalled starts we had a go at fixing it, but we only got less than half way up the beat before it came down. Then we went to a quieter cove and had a go at re-running the halyard and got back in time for the third race, only to be called over. We recovered well and had a really storming last run, taking four boats, to get fourth, so we are really pleased, not disappointed."

After a second, third and a fifth today to lie second Artemis' owner Torbjorn Tornqvist concluded: "Everything went well for us today. We knew we should do better in the brisker winds so we are all quite happy. Things went well no hiccups with the equipment. With boat handling as well of course it is a very professional team, working well together knowing what they have to do at all times - there is a good spirit on the boat which is also very important. Sailing conditions are fantastic, you couldn't ask for better - strong winds, flat waters and the races are very well organised."


2007 Breitling MedCup TP52 Circuit - Portugal Trophy, Portimao.

Standings after Day 1:

Pos	Boat	Owner/skipper	Nat	R1	R2	R3	Tot
1	VALLE ROMANO - MEAN MACHINE	Peter de Ridder	MON	7	1	1	9
2	ARTEMIS	Torbjorn Torqnvist	SWE	2	3	5	10
3	CxG CORPORACIÓN CAIXAGALICIA	John Cook	ESP	3	4	10	17
4	PATCHES	Inaki Castaner	IRE	6	5	9	20
5	BRIBON	Peedro Mendonca	ESP	5	2	14	21
6	SIEMENS	Alberto Roemmers	A/E	9	13	2	24
7	CRISTABELLA	Rainer Wilhelm	GBR	8	6	11	25
8	WINDQUEST	Doug de Vos	USA	10	7	8	25
9	STAY CALM	Stuart Robinson	GBR	1	21 DNF	4	26
10	BALEARIA	Adolfo Utor	ESP	14	10	3	27
11	ANONIMO Q8	Riccardo Simoneschi	ITA	4	14	12	30
12	RBENSIMON - BIGAMIST 6	Harm Muller-Spreer	POR	17	8	7	32
13	CAM, CAJA MEDITERRÁNEO	Jose Cusi	ESP	16	12	6	34
14	MUTUA MADRILEÑA	John Buchan	ESP	12	9	16	37
15	ONO	Vasco Vascotto	ESP	11	11	15	37
16	RUSAL - Synergy	Alexey Nikolaev	RUS	13	16	13	42
17	TAU CERAMICA-ANDALUCIA	Javier Banderas, Rafael Diaz	ESP	18	15	17	50
18	VALARS	Serguei Shevtsov	RUS	21 DNF	17	18	56
19	AIFOS	Jaime Rodriguez-Toubes	ESP	15	21 DNF	21 DNS	57
20	PLATOON	Eamon Conneely	GER	21 DNC	21 DNC	21 DNC	63
21	GLORY	King Harald of Norway	USA	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	75
22	BAMBAKOU	John Coumantaros	USA	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	75
23	C-QUADRAT - ASTRO	Fernando Leon	AUS	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	75
24	FRAM XVI	Vicente Tirado	NOR	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	75

More photos on the following pages...