Giraglia Rolex Cup, le prime regate costiere
AlturaGiraglia Rolex CupMaxiVela 14 Giugno 2009 Zerogradinord 1
Giraglia Rolex Cup – Saint Tropez – Cielo soleggiato e vento regolare tra i 6 e gli 8 nodi a Saint Tropez per il primo giorno di regate della Giraglia Rolex Cup, organizzata dallo Yacht Club Italiano con la collaborazione dello Yacht Club de France e della Société Nautique de St. Tropez e con la partnership di Rolex.
Come sempre la Giraglia Rolex Cup rappresenta il mix ideale tra professionismo ad altissimo livello e appassionati di vela che non vogliono perdere questa grande classica del Mediterraneo. Anche quest’anno la regola non cambia: in banchina, di fianco ai velisti entusiasti che regatano per il piacere di praticare questo sport, è possibile vedere grandi campioni come Grant Simmer (tattico di Coppa America) che è a bordo del 21 metri Ran del fondatore di Skype Niklas Zennstrom, Marc Pajot (5 volte campione del mondo, vincitore della Route du Rhum, velista di Coppa America) che regata sul super maxi French Spirit One e il navigatore solitario Kito de Pavant (vincitore del Figaro) a bordo dell’Imoca 60 Groupe Bel.
La regata di oggi e i vincitori nei vari raggruppamenti
La prova ha preso il via poco dopo le 11 ed è stato davvero spettacolare vedere il Golfo di St Tropez colorato da centinaia di vele. Il Comitato di regata ha diviso la flotta in due gruppi: IMA Gruppo A (raggruppamenti IRC e ORC) e Swan 45 e Gruppo B (anche qui divise in IRC e ORC).
Per la prova di oggi le imbarcazioni del Gruppo A e la flotta di Swan 45 si sono affrontate su un percorso lungo 22 miglia che dopo la partenza al largo di St. Tropez, ha fatto rotta sulle boe di Nioulargue per passare quindi lungo la punta des Issambres e fare ritorno a St Tropez. Le barche più piccole del Gruppo B hanno regatato su un percorso di 17,8 miglia sulla rotta St. Tropez- boa di Nioulargue – St.Tropez.
Questa i primi in classifica per ogni raggruppamento:
Maxi: French Spirit One
Mini Maxi Racing: Alegre di Allan Cameron
Mini Maxi Cruising: @robas di Gerard Logel
IRC A: Kuujjuaq di Ludovic de Saint Jean
IRC B: Satisfaxion di Antoine Canovas
ORC A: Near Miss di Franck Noelle Duck
ORC B: Ala Bianca di Camillo Capozzi
Swan 45: Fever di Gordon-Diederichs
Swan 42: Kuujjuaq di Ludovic de Saint Jean
Alle 20 di questa sera, come da tradizione, è in programma la cerimonia di benvenuto voluta dalla cittadina di St. Tropez per celebrare la Giraglia Rolex Cup: gli oltre 2000 partecipanti si ritroveranno in un’atmosfera festosa sulle banchine del porto, dove sono stati allestiti decine di tavoli con specialità provenzali.
La Giraglia Rolex Cup continua domani, con la seconda prova costiera. Martedì l’ultima prova e la festa alla Citadelle dove tutti faranno le ore piccole in vista della partenza della regata d’altura di 245 miglia sul percorso St.Tropez – Ile du Levant – Giraglia – Genova che parte la mattina di mercoledì 17 giugno.
Le Nazioni rappresentate
Sono 12 le Nazioni rappresentate alla Giraglia Rolex Cup: Belgio, Francia, Germania, Gran Bretagna, Italia, Olanda, Portogallo, Principato di Monaco, Russia, Spagna, Svizzera, Stati Uniti.
RECORD FLEET SAILS AT ROLEX GIRAGLIA CUP IN ST TROPEZ
[Giraglia Rolex Cup Press Release] By the time the dust settled at the race office in St Tropez, 192 boats were entered for the 57th edition of the Giraglia Rolex Cup, with over 2,000 sailors competing. The bay of St. Tropez was a sight full of sails midmorning – the race fleet eagerly anticipating the start of racing. The sun was shining, but the south-southeasterly breeze of 6-8 knots never built much more, staying light most of the day.
The 21-boat IMA Maxi division went off first on a 21.9nm coastal race. The starting line was generous, but with the race committee end favored, the fleet naturally skewed that way. Caught in the pack was French Spirit One, at 27.45m the biggest boat in the fleet, was caught barging at the start and was forced out by the Italian Wally, Good Job Guys, and had to tack around to start cleanly. Meanwhile, the STP 65 Luna Rossa had a perfect start hard by the committee boat, at the line with full speed at the starting gun.
Luna Rossa led initially up the beat, but with the right side of the course favored, Alegre found the favorable lane first and led around the top mark, followed by Luna Rossa, Ran, and Bella Mente. From there it was a drag race, the boats following each other in a line close reaching on an approximate 8-nm leg to the mark. Rounding in the same order, they set asymmetric headsails and sailed on a long starboard gybe, which allowed only a few position changes, across to a leeward mark east of Ste Maxime. Alegre held her lead with Ran now behind, followed more closely by Bella Mente. Apart from the fact that Alegre was in front of Ran, the Mini-Maxis basically finished in size order, so it was one of those days the big boats had a slight advantage.
The smallest and newest of the Mini-Maxis is Sir Peter Odgen’s 60-foot Jethou, a Judel-Vrolick design built at Green Marine and launched in April. This is the first regatta for the boat, which had a week of sea trials and only few days of sail trials after being shipped from the UK to Genoa.
Back in St. Tropez’s Old Port, Ian Budgen, tactician on Jethou commented, “All in all, as a crew we’ve practiced for about five days. So today was race one; I said to the guys we might not have won, but we haven’t embarrassed ourselves.
As the smallest boat (in this division), in light air we have to fight really hard for clear air, which means we can’t quite go the direction we want to go. So we lost out a little bit to the big boats. But we were pleased to be in the hunt and find out how our boat goes comparatively to them, and so we’re reasonably happy.”
Ogden is an avid sailor, who previously campaigned his Swan 601 for two years prior to commissioning his new boat. Budgen continued, “The philosophy of the boat is that the owner loves his sailing, but enjoys sailing with his friends. We’ll learn and move on together as a team and it’ll take us a little bit longer than all the professional guys, but we’ll get there in the end and we’ll have a good time doing it, and that’s very much Peter’s philosophy. To sail a brand new full state-of-the-art race boat is just fantastic: she’s very light, all carbon, and very fast. She’s basically a baby Ran, with some very similar characteristics.”
The IRC/ORC Group A and the Swan 45 division sailed the same 21.9nm course as the Maxis. The Swan 45 one-design fleet comprised ten boats and it was Grant Gordon’s/Klaus Diederichs’ Fever that finished ahead.
Gordon, at the helm today said, “It was really enjoyable today, our first regatta in St Tropez. The conditions were really soft in terms of wind, but we were really pleased with the speed of the boat and the performance of the team, so we’re delighted with the result.”
“We had some lucky breaks too where there seemed to be more breeze offshore and we went left offshore and got the breeze first. As the 3rd start, one of the challenges in the race was to get through the fleet of slow boats ahead of us, so there was quite a bit of fun and games dodging those guys in the light air, but once we got through there was clear air and it was an easier race from then on.”
Tactician Andy Beadsworth, added, “The breeze sort of came and went, went left and right. At the end of the day it didn’t really change much, and we were all trying to double guess if it was going or not. It was a real tactician’s nightmare.”
Beadsworth attributed the win to a good start and the fact they had a strategy, but said, “We were less than perfectly prepared.we lost our navigation instruments and so we didn’t really know where we were going and what the course was and I think we probably were not vigilant enough to have our eyes out of the boat trying to do it without instruments.”
“As tactician, I ended up positioning ourselves against the fleet and I didn’t really know where the mark was. So we made a couple of big mistakes which cost us, but at the end of the beat we saw more pressure left and had a couple of shifts which encouraged us to go out to the left and we made a huge gain. I’d say it was a little bit of luck and a little bit of vision and forethought – we got a little bit of encouragement to back what we thought was right, which is nice.”
The IRC/ORC B division sailed a 17.8nm course. One of the smaller boats in that group was Hector, an Archimbault 35, chartered for the race by Swiss sailor Norbert Schmitz. Italian crew members Daniela Manchistro and Elisa de Muzio, were pleased with their day, “It was a nice race, not much wind but enough to finish. Our start was not very aggressive, but we were able to gain and be in front with the small boats. The boat is designed as a race boat, very spartan, so quite empty inside, but it is fun to sail. It’s an easy boat to race, and does well in light winds.”
Inshore racing at the Giraglia Rolex Cup continues tomorrow and Tuesday. On Wednesday, a fleet of close to 200 yachts will start the Giraglia Race, a 243-mile marathon starting from St Tropez via the Giraglia Rock at the northern tip of Corsica to the finish in the Italian port of Genoa.
