Alfa looks to better her record

Neville Crichton's maxi to compete in the Rolex Giraglia Cup

The speed record of 22 hours, 13 minutes and 48 seconds set in 2003 for the offshore race of the Giraglia Rolex Cup, between St Tropez, the Giraglia rock and Genoa, by maxi yacht Alfa Romeo still stands.

In this event Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo has to date notched up four line honours victory in this prestigious race organised by the Yacht Club Italiano. This year the 30m maxi arrives in St Tropez with a crew of 24 top-level sailors, including several crewmen from Alinghi. Among them is Grant Simmer, Managing Director and Design Coordinator for the Swiss America's Cup defender, who will be sailing on board as strategist, and looking to read the wind right to beat the 2003 record and set a new time.

The 56th Giraglia Rolex Cup will get under way with 200 entrants on 8 June, the first of three days of inshore racing to be held off Saint Tropez..On 11 June Alfa Romeo will set sail on the offshore race: Following the start in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, the fleet will round the La Fourmigue lighthouse on the islet of Giraglia, north of Corsica, before racing for the finish line in Genova, for an offshore course totalling 243 nautical miles.

With the 2008 season still in its early days, Alfa Romeo already has an impressive tally of victories to her credit: IRC Group A winner in the Trofeo Pirelli, winner of Rolex Capri Sailing Week and real time winner of the Tre Golfi-Trofeo Loro Piana event.

After the Giraglia Rolex Cup, Alfa Romeo will head for Porto Cervo for the Boat International Super Yacht Cup (23-26 June), and return once more to Sardinia in September for the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup (Porto Cervo, 2-6 September).