Foto copyright Carlo Borlenghi
Foto copyright Carlo Borlenghi
Foto copyright Carlo Borlenghi
Foto copyright Carlo Borlenghi
Foto copyright Carlo Borlenghi
Fuente info regattanews
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS
May 20, 2009
“Buon vento. Benvenuti a Capri.” With these words, Massimo Massaccesi opened the fifth Rolex Capri Sailing Week last evening at the skipper's briefing held at the Capri Palace Hotel elegantly located in Anacapri. This morning, Capri greeted the crews with beautiful sunshine and the thirty-eight competing yachts set about creating a few more legends for this island of myth, celebrity and fine-cuisine.
The welcome, though, was limited to the clear sky. The two races were held in difficult conditions, where the wind eventually settled from a westerly direction but without much stability. Fragile breeze, meant fragile leads and this showed at times as some of the first leg leaders found themselves second leg losers. Table toppers this evening are: Vincenzo Onorato and Mascalzone Latino (ITA) in Farr 40 (2,1); Nico Poons and Charisma (NED) in Swan 45 (4,1); Enrico Scerni and Kora 4 (ITA) in Swan 42 (1,1); Alessandro Nespega and Fral 2 (ITA) in Comet 45S (3,1), and, Massimo Russo and Athanor (ITA) in Comet 41S (1,1).
In the Farr 40s, it was Marco Rodolfi and TWT (ITA) that came out all guns blazing, after two aborted starts and an impending 180 degree wind shift left Peter Reggio, the Principal Race Officer, with little choice but to hold up proceedings for an hour and a half to allow the westerly flow to settle. Second at the first windward mark, Rodolfi and tactician Tiziano Nava made gains downwind and by the finish had done enough to sneak across the line a hair's breadth ahead of Mascalzone Latino. Race two did not go so well for TWT, who were fourth at the first mark, but victims of a vicious hole on the downwind leg that left them struggling to recover to seventh at the finish. Enough to lie second in class overnight, but Onorato and his team put in stellar second race to lead from start to finish and the Neapolitan has an ominous five-point advantage already.
