Porto Cervo, 11th September 1999

Day six

ROUND UP

ILC Maxi and IMS Division sail ten mile, five leg windward /leeward.
Cruising Division sail coastal race.
Steady fifteen knot north-easterly breeze provides perfect conditions for finale.
Sayonara wins both ILC Maxi and IMS Championship from Boomerang - despite breakdowns.
Genie of the Lamp holds on to take Cruising Division

THE INSIDE STORY

Final Race Drama

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup ended as it opened, with a battle for ascendancy between the ILC Maxi's - Sayonara and Boomerang - of Larry Ellison and George Coumantaros. Locked together since they shared the honours on the first day - it was winner take all, with both the ILC Maxi and the IMS Division prizes at stake in the final race.

The regatta has been sailed in everything from eight to twenty knots, up and down windward/leeward buoy courses, and around the rocky coastline of the Costa Smeralda. It's been a searching test of all aspects of racing these huge boats. The sail trimmers and foredeck crew have seen thousands of square metres of sail cloth shred before their eyes. Three boats bear the wounds of contact with the jagged edges of the Costa Smeralda - leaving their navigators with the emotional scars of running their multi-million dollar charges aground.

The maintenance crews have seen thousands of hours of preparation shatter. Exotic Aramid, PBO and Spectra fibres in ropes and sails; carbon fibre, titanium and high-grade stainless steel equipment in masts and deck gear - all have catastrophically failed this week. The loads imposed by hard racing in yachts of forty two metres in length, and as much as a hundred and fifty tonnes in weight, have matched the best that technology can offer. While the mix of race courses and conditions has demanded the utmost concentration from the tacticians and strategists. It was fitting, then, that after all this, the overall results should go down to the final race.

With Whitbread winner Paul Cayard aboard Boomerang, up against the reigning Maxi World Champion, Larry Ellison's Sayonara, neither boat was likely to give an inch. Sailed in blistering sunshine, a moderate sea and fifteen knots of north-easterly breeze - the final race had plenty of drama. Sayonara took control up the first beat, Sailing Master Chris Dickson saying that, 'We felt the wind was pretty even, so we went right to get the starboard tack advantage.'

It worked and Sayonara rounded the windward mark first, with Alexia and Boomerang overlapped close behind her. Boomerang was through to second at the bottom mark, and had closed on Sayonara. Cayard instigated a flurry of tacks from Boomerang, trying to wriggle free. And a parted headsail sheet on Sayonara gave her the chance. But Sayonara came back with the right shift and eased away to lead by just under a minute at the next mark. That should have been it.

Until a broken jib halyard half-way up the final beat gave Boomerang the opportunity to attack again. Sayonara's bowman, Don McCracken, has plenty of America's Cup experience, and he commented, 'The main thing was not to panic, and make it worse.' Also aboard was Whitbread winning bowman, Curtis Blewett, and he added, 'Luckily we'd stretched out a bit by then, so it wasn't a screaming frenzy. But we lost enough. If they'd only been five lengths behind when it happened, it would have been different.' Of his crew, Dickson commented, 'It was amazingly quiet. The crew have practised breakdowns. They just got on and did the job.' And George Coumantaros's crew never quite had enough to get past. Sayonara took the race, and both the ILC Maxi and IMS Divisions.

But Boomerang have plenty to console themselves with, by winning the three event series - Cowes, Fastnet and Sardinia - to take the 1999 International Class A Yacht Association series. But it was a disappointing day for Irvine Laidlaw's British crew aboard Highland Fling. After holding a solid third place overall for most of the week, a blistering final race from Riccardo Bonadeo's Rrose Selavy, gave them third place in the IMS Division behind the two ILC Maxis. They won the final race by a single second, from Sayonara. Rrose Selavy's tactician, Flavio Favini, commented, 'Highland Fling was beating us at the beginning of the week, but the wind got up for the last few races, and we perform better in a breeze. We have a lot of stability.'

Overall, the Cruising Division was dominated by the high technology of the Wally Yachts. Combining luxury accommodation with fly-by-wire sail trimming and futuristic looks, the twenty four metre Genie of the Lamp, owned by Gianlucca Vacchi, beat her fractionally smaller sister-ship, Marco Tronchetti Provera's Kauris II. With the twenty nine metre Wally Yacht, Marco Levi's Yam, overcoming gear failure earlier in the week, to come through and take third. First of the classic yachts was Steve McLaren's forty one metre Alejandra, in fourth.
Written by Mark Chisnell, for The Strategic Organisation