ANOTHER WINDY DAY FOR THE MARINA YACHTING SARDINIA CUP

Porto Cervo, 17th September 1998

35 knot north-westerly winds continue to blow in Costa Smeralda, disrupting the Marina Yachting Sardinia Cup. The regatta, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in cooperation with Plus Factor and with the support of the Italian Sailing Federation, is held every two years off the shores of Porto Cervo.

Scheduled in this morning’s programme was a technical regatta on a two-buoyed route to be run off the shores of Cala di Volpe; in spite of the registered wind levels, the Regatta Committee ruled that the competition could proceed as planned. The competing teams, however, electing not to expose their boats and teams to risk, unanimously decided to remain in port today.

The Marina Yachting Sardinia Cup did nonetheless post an official ranking, based on a trial which was run today; all competing teams were subsequently assigned a non-racing score.

The outcome of the only trial completed so far, an 80 mile regatta run yesterday, are as follows. In the large boat category, Farr 49 Breeze was the winner, with Milanese Paolo Gaia depending on the talented Tommaso Chieffi at the helm. In second place was the German Rubin XV (H.O. Schumann - J. Christensen), while Moby Lines 49 (Vincenzo Onorato), sailing under the colours of Sardinia, came in third. Among the medium sized boats, the Dutch Mean Machine (Peter de Ridder, with Bouwe Bekking at the helm), competing for North Sea, edged out both Moby Lines 36, with Enrico Chieffi at the rudder for the Sardinian team, and Evolution, sailing under the Argentinian flag. In the group of smaller boats, another Italian victory was registered, with shipowner Gualberto Gualtieri’s ILC 30 Blue Storm, competing with Luca Santella at the helm, coming in first. Finishing second was the Spanish Galicia Calidade (Laureano Wizner), followed by the Genoese Piergiorgio Ravaioni’s Tamoil Lady X Lady, sailing under the colours of Malta.

The provisional ranking after 2 races is thus topped by Italy Red, composed of Breeze (Gaia - Chieffi), Brava Q8 (Landolfi -Dodson) and Blue Storm (Gualtieri - Santella), with 22 points. Registering second place at the moment is North Sea, made up of Rubin XV (Schumann - Christensen), Mean Machine (De Ridder - Bekking) and Aero Sail 3 (Willim - Von Der Goltz) with 23 points. Finally, Sardegna, with the two Moby Lines and Mascalzone Latino & Co., manned by Vincenzo Onorato, came in third with a total of 25 points.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast calls for better conditions, with winds subsiding somewhat. At least two trials are thus expected to be run, with start-off scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Updated results can be consulted at www.sardiniacup.com, provided by After; there is additionally an available phone service offering the same information at (+39) 078994269.

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