Nerone by a nose

Italian favourites take Farr 40 title in Punta Ala and lay down the guantlet for forthcoming Worlds

The Farr 40 Mediterranean Circuit cranked up another level this weekend following the second regatta held in Punta Ala, Italy. With just four weeks to the Farr 40 Worlds in Sardinia, the fleet consisted of 27 boats and the who’s who of yachting.

The fleet has quickly made its mark this year as the only place to be seen racing inshore one designs. Adrian Stead, tactician for Tony De Mulder on Victric, commented “The racing is just superb, 27 boats all arriving at the windward together, it’s just too close to call.”

The regatta win went to the Italian favourites Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone 2, with Med specialist Vasco Vasscotto calling the tactics. This crew have been putting together some very hot results over the past season and are certainly one of the favourites to take the World Championship.

Nerone 2 was however taken to wire on the last race by American Jim Richardson in Barking Mad, with the Italians only beating the experienced American team by just 0.8 of a point. Nerone put in her worst result on the final day of the nine race series by scoring a 12. Barking Mad were awarded redress earlier in the regatta after being wrongly called on a Black Flag start, hence their 42.8 score line.

Med Fleet Chairman and past 470 World Champion, Alberto Signorini, owner of Seven, made a quick impression on the fleet by finishing in third in his first appearance this year. With Tomasso Chieffi holding onto the back stanchion of Seven, this boat is again in the favourites list for Sardinia.

Notable British performances were Philip Tolhurst’s Warlord, which finished in eighth spot and with her UK Sails, was the only non-North boat in Punta Ala. They suffered early on after a tangle with fellow Brits Game On.

It was the first appearance in the Med for Mark Heeley’s GBR25, back with 2001 tactician Iain Percy, who’s CV is a little longer this time. The team showed very good up wind pace and can certainly be counted in the leading bunch of boats.

The surprise result of the regatta was the usually dynamite Atalanti, owned by Greek George Andreadis, with the shots being called by his long term tactican Robbie Haines, they ended up a disappointing 14th. Andreadis has probably been the most consistent performer in the class over the previous years and this result is very much out of character.

Racing took place in perfect conditions, ranging from a light 4 knots through to a solid 16. In all nine windward leeward races were sailed, with no discards.

The starts proved decisive, with a windward leg of 1.7 miles, that extra quarter of a boatlength was all that was needed to avoid the scrum. The windward mark was a fairly nerve racking scene.

The final regatta of the Deutsche Bank series is in Porto Rotondo at the end of June. The boats then head a couple of mile up the cost of Sardinia, a couple of days later, to Porto Cervo for the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds.

Late additions to the already star studded fleet will include, among others, Ernesto Bertarelli and his Coutts led Alinghi team.

		Yacht	Owner	Tactician	Points
1	ITA1972	NERONE 2	Mezzaroma/Migliori	Vasco Vascotto	42
2	USA50955	BARKING MAD	Jim Richardson	Terry Hutchinson	42.8
3	ITA1161	SEVEN	Alberto Signorinii	Tommaso Chieffi	53
4	GER93	NELA	Michael Illbruck	John Kostecki	73
5	AUS1770	SOUTHERN STAR	John Calvert-Jones	Grant Simmer	73
6	GBR25R	GBR25	Mark Heeley	Iain Percy	76
7	GBR5R	VICTRIC	Tony de Mulder	Adrian Stead	93
8	GBR7400	WARLORD	Philip Tolhurst	Chris Main	96
9	ITA1	BREEZE	Vincenzo Onorato	Flavio Favini	103
10	NOR51581	NORWEGIAN STEAM	Eivind Astrup	Herman Schansen	113
11	ITA13711	TWT	Marco Rodolfi	Tiziano Nava	114
12	NED5764	MEAN MACHINE	Peter De Ridder	Stu Bannatyne	117
13	GER5055	STRUNTJE LIGHT	Wolfgang Schaefer	Xavier Rohart	130
14	GRE42	ATALANTI	George Andreadis	Robbie Haines	132
15	USA46957	GROOVEDERCI	Deneen/John Demourkas	Mark Reynolds	137
16	ITA4038	MADINA MILANO	Dario Ferrari	Thierry Peponnet	139
17	ITA103	BOTTADICULO	Arrivabene-Mincione	Mauro Pelaschier	148
18	ITA4088	ZZENZERO 7	Renato Mazzeschi	Enrico Passoni	159
19	ITA2272	NERONE 1	Claudi Recchi	Hamish Pepper	159
20	GBR888L	KATANGA	Robin Paterson	Ian Walker	160
21	ITA18	RROSE	Riccardo Bonadeo	Gabriele Benussi	162
22	FRA9383	FARRFELU	Alain Bompart	Alain Fedensteux	165
23	JPN5095	SLED	Takashi Okura	Yutaka Takagi	170
24	GBR7040R	GAME ON	Oswald-Bainbridge	Anthony Haines	179
25	FRA29039	HAGAKURE	Michel Tiberini	Francois Brenac	187
26	GBR46R	ALEPH	Lepic/Detroyat	Luc Pillot	187
27	USA40040	ALBABLU	Renato Irrera	Francesco Bruni	188