Porto Cervo, 6 June

The Farr 40 European Championship 2007, organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and taking place within the Rolex Settimana delle Bocche, kicked off this morning as the 21 yachts taking part set off from Porto Cervo accompanied by sunshine, clear skies and a shifty breeze of just under 5 knots which would pick up to 6-8 knots as racing began. The Race Committee set a windward-leeward course of approximately 7 nautical miles at 350° and the starting signal for the first of today’s three races sounded at 12.05pm.
First around the leeward mark in race one were Alessandro Barnaba’s Fiamma (ITA) and Carlo Alberini’s Calvi (ITA) with Tommaso Chieffi and Pietro d’Alì respectively on tactics. Norwegian Steam (NOR), owned by Elvind Astrup, was fourth around the first mark but managed to move up through the fleet to cross the finish line first ahead of Fiamma and Calvi. Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino (ITA), current holder of both European and World Farr 40 titles, got off to a poor start and moved up through the fleet to come in tenth.

Race two saw the committee boat move the marks to 65° which then had to be adjusted to 110° as the wind swung round to the west. An extremely close rounding at the top mark shook the fleet up considerably and at the first leeward mark TWT (ITA), owned by Marco Rodolfi and with Tiziana Nava calling tactics, rounded ahead of the pack, followed by Calvi and Norwegian Steam. At the finish mark TWT held the lead over Gianluigi Serena’s Enfant Terrible (ITA) with America’s Cup tactician Paolo Cian aboard. Calvi, whose uusual reflective metallic-effect hull covering makes it a real pull for the photo-boats on the course, came in third.

As the breeze picked up to around 6 to 8 knots and shifted yet gain to south-south easterly the third and final race of the day got underway shortly after 4 pm. First around the leeward mark this time was Giovanni Maspero’s Joe Fly (ITA). Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball (ITA) rounded in second place with Stratis Andreadis’ Atalanti XI, which has Olympic gold medallist Sofia Bekatorou calling tactics, in third. Joe Fly and Cannonball held first and second places to cross the finish line while Atalanti XI dropped back to fourth behind Lang Walker’s Kokomo (AUS).

The overall classification after today’s racing sees Norwegian Steam in first place ahead of TWT and Nerone although only three points separate these top-ranked boats.

Norwegian Steam’s owner, Eivind Astrup was pleased with the tactical decisions made today: “We made a few mistakes today, for instance at the bottom mark in the last race where we were not very smart. We were eighth and we should have been a bit better, but we are very pleased with the day of course. There was a lot of current, at least on the first race, so the choice of side was very important. Once you get that correct side then it is hard for the others to pick up and you had a good chance of finishing in the top three.” On the outlook for the rest of the week he was philosophical: “Tomorrow we have no expectations we will just do the best we can and see what happens. In the press release before the regatta we were never mentioned which is great because we are outsiders so perhaps people don't take us seriously!”

TWT’s owner, Marco Rodolfi was also cautious about the week ahead: “We are always very sceptical, last year we took a second place in the Europeans. This year’s fleet has loads of boats which could take top ranking and the fleet is even more numerous than in the previous editions. This raises the racing level and makes it harder to win, but we are obviously here to take first …and not second place.”

Racing is scheduled to start tomorrow, 7th June, at 12 midday and the forecast predicts south-easterly winds of approximately 5 knots in the morning which will remain light and move round to become easterly over the course of the afternoon.

Further information, entry list, full results and editorial-free photos are available from www.rolexsettimanadellebocche.com, www.yccs.it and www.regattanews.com .

YCCS Press Office
Jill Campbell

pressoffice@yccs.it
www.yccs.it