Nerone ahead by a point

Difficult day for tacticians in a day of variable breeze at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in Copenhagen

It was a tough day for tacticians on the Oresund Strait on day one of the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship. With the northwesterly breeze shifting steadily, and the pressure up and down, fortunes were won and lost throughout the day.

The race committee ran three races - all windward/leewards, comprising four 2.2 mile legs and all starts got off cleanly with no general recalls. Wind speed was close to 20 knots at times and down to below 10 knots during a couple of the races, but mostly in the 14-16 knot range - nice conditions when it was steady and not shifty - which was rare.

Overall Massimo Mezzaroma/Antonio Sodo Migliori's Nerone (ITA) sailed most consistently with a 3-6-1 to edge out Mascalzone Latino by one point overall for the day. Mezzaroma said: "It was very tricky and quite shifty. I'm glad we were here to sail for a while before the Worlds. The class is so tough. We've sailed at most of the recent Worlds, except San Francisco. Normally if you are 15-20th in the fleet in a place like this you can gain 10 boats (with the shifts)." As to the reason they are sailing so well today, Mezzaroma added: "I'm proud to say that we are sailing with the same guys - all Italians - for eight years, which isn't easy to do." Integral to the team is Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team skipper and Mutua Madrilena TP52 helmsman Vasco Vascotto

Some top teams clearly have not hit their pace yet and almost all had fairly inconsistent scorelines, and this highlighted the challenging and shifty wind conditions, which are set to remain for the duration of the regatta. In past Worlds, an average of 7-8 place per race would put a boat in contention overall, though with top boats in the upper scoreline, that most likely won't be the case in Copenhagen.

The general consensus was voiced by tactician Tony Rey from Cannonball, who said "It's going to be a high scoring regatta". The Italian boat lost their wind instruments on a day that many would argue boats could use all the help they could on the race course.

Winner of the second race was John Thompson on Infinity, with Jens Christiansen as tactician. While Infinity sails with a core crew that has been racing on the boat for years, there are seven nationalities, including their bowman Scotsman, Scott Graham who they found on the internet last year when they were caught short for crew before Key West Race Week.

Ten years ago Thompson won the first-ever Farr 40 regatta held. The regatta, in Fort Lauderdale, had nine boats and of those, Thompson, Jim Richardson, and Eduardo de Souza Ramos are still competitors. That was on hull #4, Solution, Thompson's current boat Infinity is seven-years old (hull #84). Ten years later still winning and still having fun. Thompson said: "Not only am I probably the oldest skipper, I've the oldest boat." But he has been an avid fan of the class and recently ordered a new Farr 40 that he'll take delivery on in February 2008. He added: "all I have to do is get my knees fixed in between and I'll be all set."

For the 2nd race, Infinity started literally right at the committee boat end with "some of the race officials probably pulling their feet up - we were really close!" Infinity stuck to their plan to stay on the right side. At the top mark, the American boat was first boat around and led for the next two and a half legs. Then Mascalzone Latino caught up. "In the last 200-300 yards, all of a sudden Vincenzo got this huge lefty and sailed around us," recounted Thompson. "We kept trying to sneak by him, and got by. But (coming to the finish line) they were on starboard and we were on port and they had to let us in, if we had gybed they would have gotten us.we made it by five feet."

While Thompson has been in the Farr 40 class since its beginnings, Australian Ivan Wheen on Sputnik has been in the class only since 2005. On day one Sputnik racked up a 5-30-2 scoreline, seeing both ends of the fleet in the same day, but clearly trending in the right direction. Wheen said, "It was cold out there and it was really a day to try to pick the shifts. If you ended up on the wrong side of a shift you got buried. We were lucky in a couple of races and unlucky in another. But the competition is fierce and if you drop your guard for a second they let you know about."

Wheen continued: "There are so many talented people it is just being consistent and perhaps we were just a little inconsistent in the middle race. The very best guys are absolutely consistent almost all the time."

Sputnik's crew members include several Olympic sailors including tactician Tom King who won a gold medal in the 470 class in the 2000 Sydney Olympics Games. King added to Wheen's comments, saying, "As a tactician it was a question of holding one's nerve and being patient. It was enjoyable conditions to race in because there were always opportunities even when you were back in the fleet to get back up to the front again. It was not boring by any stretch of the imagination."

Racing continues tomorrow, Thursday 29 August with a first race start at 1100. Three races are scheduled.

The Opening Ceremony was held last night at Copenhagen's stunning Opera house, where Commodore David Holm of the Royal Danish Yacht Club welcomed competitors from 13 countries: Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, UK, Ukraine and U.S.A.

Today's post-race social events at the Farr 40 Lounge at the Royal Danish Yacht Club's headquarters in Tuborg Harbor included the Hilton Race Day awards presentation.

Results

Pos	Yacht	Nat	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	Tot
1	NERONE	ITA	Antonio Sodo Migliori	3	6	1	10
2	MASCALZONE LATINO	ITA	Vincenzo Onorato	2	2	7	11
3	OPUS ONE	GER	Wolfgang Stolz	4	3	6	13
4	CALVI	ITA	Carlo Alberini	1	9	14	24
5	ALINGHI	SUI	Ernesto Bertarelli	18	5	4	27
6	BARKING MAD	USA	Jim Richardson	7	16	5	28
7	ENFANT TERRIBLE	ITA	Serena Gianluigi	10	10	13	33
8	INFINITY	USA	John B. Thomson Jr.	24	1	10	35
9	SPUTNIK	AUS	Ivan Wheen	5	30	2	37
10	MONICK - TUBORG	DEN	David Holm	9	14	21	44
11	ICHI BAN	AUS	Matt Allen	14	27	8	49
12	TWINS	FRA	Erik Maris	33	4	15	52
13	KOKOMO	AUS	Lang Walker	27	24	3	54
14	SIRAGUSAWA	FIN	Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi	11	26	18	55
15	FIAMMA	ITA	Alessandro Barnaba	17	22	17	56
16	PHISHFOOD	USA	Alexis Michas	6	15	36	57
17	CANNONBALL	ITA	Dario Ferrari	13	32	12	57
18	FLASH GORDON 5	USA	Helmut Jahn	21	28	9	58
19	WARPATH	USA	Stephen Howe	23	13	22	58
20	NANOQ	DEN	HRH Crown Prince Frederik	15	19	25	59
21	STRUNTJE LIGHT	GER	Wolfgang Schaefer	28	21	11	60
22	HOOLIGAN	AUS	Marcus C. Blackmore	16	17	27	60
23	ALEPH	GBR	Hughes Lepic	8	20	33	61
24	SILVER BULLET	DEN	Henrik Jansen	25	8	30	63
25	OLD BOYS	BRA	Eduardo de Souza Ramos	12	35	16	63
26	MONKEY CLASS 2	DEN	Ole van der Heide	31	12	20	63
27	NORWEGIAN STEAM	NOR	Eivind Astrup	26	18	19	63
28	WOLFPACK	SWE	Peter Rudbäck	22	11	31	64
29	JOE FLY	ITA	Giovanni Maspero	19	23	23	65
30	ARCTUR	UKR	Vasyl Gureyev	35	7	24	66
31	BACKBONE - AUDI	DEN	Thomas Kiær	20	33	28	81
32	LE RENARD	USA	Stephen B. Phillips	34	25	26	85
33	TEAM BERGEN	NOR	Sverre Valeur	29	29	35	93
34	GROOVEDERCI	USA	John Demourkas	32	34	29	95
35	BALOO 110	DEN	Jens Erik Høst	30	37.0 DSQ	32	99
36	HAPPY HAPPY	NOR	Per Arne Nilsen	36	31	34	101