Gone Sailing - The Perfect End

The Perfect End

The wind fills in and all overnight leaders prove their worth as Alfa Romeo, Roma, Atalanta II, Magic Carpet Squared and Hetairos win their respective divisions

September 9, 2006 (Porto Cervo, Italy) - The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, ended with a beautiful day of sailing and one last race for all divisions, in a building north westerly breeze that reached 15 knots creating a choppy sea. The Spirit of Tradition and Cruising fleets sailed on a coastal course, while the remaining divisions sailed once around the cans on a windward-leeward course.

The week-long match within the Racing division between the two competing 98-foot Super Maxis ended with Alfa Romeo claiming the title and Wild Oats finishing third, on equal points with Morning Glory, who finished second thanks to a series of consistent results. While Alfa Romeo sailed into the last race with the certainty of having won the championship (an unassailable 4-point lead over Wild Oats and a 6-point lead over Morning Glory), Wild Oats still had to fight to secure the second spot on the podium. In the end it all came down to the final run of the final race.

Bob Oatley's Wild Oats (Australia) had a brilliant start at the pin end of the line, while Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo (New Zealand) chose the Committee Boat, and Morning Glory stuck to the centre. Wild Oats was able to seize an early lead, rounding the top mark approximately 3 boat-lengths ahead of Alfa Romeo. At the first leeward mark, Alfa's crew hit problems with the take down, while Wild Oats then struggled with their spinnaker hoist at the second windward mark. Further down the final run, the Aussie crew sailed to the less favoured right hand corner of the course where they executed a less than perfect gybe. It was as if the pressure of the aggressive match-racing duel between the two Super Maxis and the added stress of knowing that today's conditions suited perfectly Morning Glory, were conspiring to undermine the confidence on usually exemplary Wild Oats. Although Wild Oats led around the course throughout today's race, claiming line honours, it wasn't enough to stop Morning Glory from claiming the top spot on handicap.

Neville Crichton, who was unaware of the problems on Oats, summed up the last race of the series, describing what went wrong on Alfa: "We had a halyard jam at the bottom mark and that unsettled us quite a badly. We couldn't get the kite down and that was the difference between winning and losing probably. We got a second on handicap and we're quite happy about that. We had already won the series, but it would have been nice to get another line honours win and that's what we were going for today. The bottom mark killed it. Wild Oats pulled out, we reeled her in. She went around the second top mark a minute and two seconds ahead of us and in the end she finished thirty-eight seconds ahead, so we pulled quite a bit out; we ran out of time to get her back." Of the overall series win, he was understandably delighted, "It's been a fantastic week of sailing, there have been enjoyable competitors and this is the best sailing in the world in my book".

Olympic and America's Cup sailor Morgan Larson from the USA, sailing on Morning Glory, explained how stronger winds throughout the week would have been better for their yacht: "Our boat was definitely set up for stronger breeze, which is what we normally have here in Porto Cervo. We couldn't make the changes to the rating in the small time we had before the regatta, so we were kind of stuck. It hurt in the light wind, but in the stronger winds we were OK. It felt good to end the series on a good note."

American Olympic Star gold medallist, round the world and America's Cup veteran Steve Erickson, also sailing on Morning Glory, cannot remember exactly how many times he's sailed here in Porto Cervo: "I bet I've sailed here almost 20 times, the first was in 1988 with the Maxi Il Moro di Venezia, which back then had the world's biggest mainsail - I think if it was sailing here now it would be one of the smallest." Regarding their hard-fought struggle to claim the second spot on the podium, Erickson commented: "We knew that we couldn't win the regatta. In order to finish second we had to get a boat in between us and Wild Oats, which was a little hard to do because it hasn't happened this week. In the end we had a good race against the big boats, which was interesting because it was the one day when it was windy. We beat both boats, so I think we far exceeded our expectations. We were all pleasantly surprised." In another pleasant surprise, Hasso Plattner discovered on the dock that a business commitment would not after all prevent him from attending the Rolex Middle Sea Race in October, and Plattner appeared delighted at the opportunity to engage once more with Alfa Romeo, Maximus and ABN Amro

The final outcome of the series within the Cruising division was also decided on this last day of racing, with Filippo Faruffini's Roma from Italy eventually claiming the overall victory over the magnificent J-Class Velsheda. Gunter Herz's Allsmoke finished third. Roma, a cruising yacht camouflaged as a racing machine, sailed into the last day with a 1-point lead over Velsheda and came in second both on the water and on handicap. Arne Glimcher's Ghost sailed brilliantly, earning the coveted double win on real and corrected time. Velsheda's crew, having misinterpreted the course thinking that there would be an initial upwind leg to a mark, lost a lot of ground with an unnecessary tack to the extreme right of the course, and finished today's race in third, thus ditching its chance of winning the series.

Italian former Olympian Paolo Semeraro, skipper of Roma, extensively praised his crew for this week's striking series of consistent results, 2,1,1,3,3,2: "Today we sailed a perfect race, the crew made no mistakes and we pushed to our limit, starting right on the edge of an OCS." Semeraro feels that today's race was particularly challenging: "It was very hard, we had a strong 15-16 knots breeze but very few tacks and gybes, therefore it was really difficult for us to make big gains on Velsheda. We were lucky that they [Velsheda] made that mistake after the start. The match with Velsheda, a J-Class boasting a carbon fibre mast and sails, has been very interesting, as they come from the past while we are probably the most modern cruiser/racer Maxi on the scene - but in the end it all came down to a delta of a few seconds."

The Italian Farr 70 Atalanta II confirmed its reputation as one of the toughest competitors to beat in the Mini Maxi division, claiming the overall title with a 6-point lead over Ernesto Gismondi's Edimetra. Owned by Carlo Puri Negri, General Executive Manager of Pirelli Real Estate, Atalanta II took line honours and won on handicap in the last race of the series. To his credit, Atalanta II has the overall victory of 2005 Rolex Middle Sea Race and the Mediterranean Championship of Offshore Racing. Massimo Violati's OPS 5 came in third in the overall scorings.

Great Britain's Magic Carpet Squared owned by Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman of the Board of Directors of L'Oreal, won the overall title in its division with an impressive record - 2,1,4,1,2,1 - and another double victory, on the water and on handicap, on the last day of the series. Dark Shadow finished second overall, ahead of Carlo Sama's Tango. Owen Jones was extremely happy and relieved to finally end a regatta here without damage: "We're thrilled. We've had some tough experiences here, one year we hit a rock and last year we broke the mast. So it's often been very difficult. We worked very hard to get it all ready and perfectly practiced, and it just all went right for us. When she's just right she's a dynamite boat." Owen Jones also thinks that a feminine touch on board was a key factor in the good result: "Emma [Westmacott] is one of the key figures in our team. She has sailed with us a lot. She's very good. She just keeps the boys a little bit less noisy and quarrelsome. Having girls on the boat definitely keeps the atmosphere cheerful, everyone a little bit more careful about what they say. That's very good for a good amateur boat, a key issue. Ian [Budgen] has been our tactician this week and he's done a fantastic job, too."

The beautiful blue-hulled Hetairos won the series among the Spirit of Tradition fleet, ahead of Dutch entry Annagine. One of the pre-series favourites Adela, the world famous schooner owned by American gas and media tycoon, George Lindemann, this time found its match on the water, ending the championship in third. The largest yacht of the fleet by some 15-metres, with a LOA of just over 55-metres, Adela is a regular competitor at this event and usually dwarfs the other yachts at the event.

During the final Prizegiving Ceremony, which took place in the Piazza Azzurra, the heart of the Race Village, the overall winners of each Division were awarded with the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and Rolex gold and steel Submariner timepieces, along with IMA Special Trophies to the winners of the IMA Championship and additional special trophies to the winner of each formalised group.

>From Monday, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda will swing into the next event of the season, the much awaited Rolex Swan Cup (September 11th-17th) which this year has attracted over 100 performance cruising and racing models from 15 different nations.

For more information about the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2006 including entry lists and results please visit www.yccsmaxi.com.

FINAL STANDINGS
Place Boat Name Owner Nation, R1/R2/R3/R4/R5/R6/Points

Racing
1. ALFA ROMEO Neville Crichton NZL, 1/1/1/2/1/(2)/6.0
2. MORNING GLORY Hasso Platner GER, 3/2/2/3/(3)/1/11.0
3. WILD OATS XI Robert I. Oatley AUS, 2/(4)/3/1/2/3/11.0

VOR
1. ABN AMRO ONE ABN Amro Brand NED, 1/1/1/1/1/(1)/5.0
2. AMER SPORT TOO Giovanni Marangon EUR, 2/2/2/2/2/(2)/10.0

Cruising
1. ROMA Filippo Faruffini ITA, 2/1/1/(3)/2/6.0
2. VELSHEDA Tarbat Investments GBR, 1/2/(4)/1/3/7.0
3. ALLSMOKE Gunter Herz GER, 3/3/3/2/(4)/11.0

Spirit of Tradition
1. HETAIROS Rockport Ltd CAY IS, 1/2/1/(3)/1/5.0
2. ANNAGINE C. E. Van Asbeck NED, 2/1/3/2/(5(RET))/8.0
3. ADELA George Lindemann USA, 3/3/2/(4)/2/10.0

Mini Maxi
1. ATALANTA II Carlo Puri Negri ITA, (4)/3/1/3/1/8.0
2. EDIMETRA Ernesto Gismondi ITA, 3/6/(6)/1/4/14.0
3. OPS 5 Massimo Violati ITA 2/5/5/4/(5)/16.0

Wally
1. MAGIC CARPET SQUARED Lindsay Owen Jones GBR, 2/1/(4)/1/2/1/7.0
2. DARK SHADOW Antexis Ltd MON, (5)/3/1/4.50/1/4/13.50
3. TANGO Carlo Sama MON, 3/2/2/2/5/(7)/14.0

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