The Italian team that represents the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda is third in the general, but the legendary regatta (in which in 1979 he lost his life 19 sailors) gave more points than the others
The company to reveal the Admiral’s Cup, which has returned to the calendar after 22 years, is announced difficult for the Italian team. But not impossible and is linked to an excellent result in the Fastnet Race that is in the sail as Wimbledon at tennis. So much so that only a boat with the tricolor a stern succeeded in the company to win it: it ran the year 1983 and at the helm of Brava, armed by the Neapolitan Pasquale Landolfi, there was a 24 -year -old from San Francisco, Paul Pierre Cayard, who would become a national hero about ten years later as a skipper of the Moro of Venice. Team Django, set up by Giovanni Lombardi Stronati and which represents the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, is in third place in the standings after the Channel Race and the coastal tests held in recent days. To drive is the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club followed by the Yacht Club de Monaco.
Vale triple
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The blue Wallyrocket51 is at the top of the group 1 ranking, the JPK is fifth in group 2: adding the placements, the third place in the standings to the team detached by 23 points compared to the leaders is worth. If the largest boat really behaved well (she won an inshore, she came second in the Channel Race and made a mistake only a regatta), the smallest struggled a lot to keep up with the opponents and collected only a second and third place of the day. 23 Points of detachment seem many but they are not because the Fastnet Race – which starts today at 1pm from Cowes and will end in Cherbourg, on the French Atlantic coast – has a different weight on the score: it is in fact a regatta with a coefficient 3, that is, the score obtained is multiplied by 3. To be clear, the first place is worth 3 points, the last (the 15th for the news is worth 45, this is the current. In the standings they can be overturned based on the stakes of the boats. The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and the Yacht Club de Monaco – current first and second in the standings – certainly start among the favorites, but the long can reserve enormous surprises.
winds from the north
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Between the Wallyrocket 51 and the JPK1180 the one to suffer more in the standings The Inshore regattas was the JPK, which underwent a little the performance (especially to the bearing) of lighter and more inveted boats such as those belonging to Fast 40 (Ker 40, GP42 and members), but in the Fastnet Race the situation can change. The JPK has an IRC rating that on 695 miles of the race can become dangerous and is certainly more competitive on the long one than in the corte inshore regattas. The weather includes predominant winds from the northern quadrants, then a long boline towards Ireland, where Fastnet Rock is located – which is the rock at the southern end of the island – and a return to the supporting pavements, with a possible ridge to spread the cards.
The tragedy of 1979
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In the great story of the Fastnet Race, there is a black page, linked to the 1979 edition of the Admiral’s Cup, won by the Australians, but marked by a tragic storm. If on the one hand, the first podium conquered by Italy (third with Vanina, Yena and Rrose Selavy) made the sail of our house proudly, on the other the good result was obscured by the disaster: 19 sailors lost their lives and 20 hulls sank between Cowes and Plymouth. Two days of terrible storm with force 11 – because of a ‘collision’ between two disturbances, evil announced to the participants – they triggered the end, with twenty up to 63 knots (130 km/h) to hit the fleet where the most part was made up of boats of simple fans. Of the 304 yachts on the starting line, only 86 will reach the finish line, 194 will retire and 20 will be abandoned by the sailors. About 4 thousand people were engaged in the most impressive rescue operation ever carried out by the British Navy in peacetime with a wide use of Sea King helicopter. It will not be the case of the regatta that starts today, which in addition to the 30 boats of the Admiral’s Cup sees another 400 also to celebrate the centenary of the Royal Ocean Racing Club which organizes the regatta, which also celebrates its 50 years. Almost all of them run in IRC but there are also the class 40, the Imocas 60, the maxi trimarans of the latest class, 32 meters long which at 99 percent will fight for the first place absolute. A curiosity: on board the boats there will be sailors of 57 nations, with a range from 14 to 81 years.
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