Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup - Italy's Luna Rossa on form for Day One

3:47 AM Tue 8 Sep 2009 GMT

'Luna Rossa - Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy 2009' &copy Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2009, organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda from 6th to 12th September, got off to a flying start today as the 42 participating yachts stormed around a 35-mile course in 20 to 25 knots of northeasterly wind. Patrizio Bertelli's Luna Rossa (ITA), with double Olympic medalists Robert Scheidt and Torben Grael (both won Gold medals for Brazil in 1996 and 2004 in the Laser and Star classes, respectively) took first place on corrected time in the Mini Maxi Racing division, while Michael Cotter's Whisper (IRL) took victory in the Mini Maxi Racing/Cruising Division.

In the Wally division, France's Jean Charles Decaux won with his J One, and Filippo Faruffini's Roma - Aniene(ITA) came in first in the Racing/Cruising division. The 1933 J Class yacht Velsheda (GBR), with Team New Zealand's Tom Dodson calling tactics, finished first in the Cruising/Spirit of Tradition division.

The course selected by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's Race Committee for today was the same for all five divisions and took the fleet from the start off Porto Cervo, around Monaci island to port and then around the southern tip of Caprera before heading up the coast past Capo d'Orso on to the Barettinelli di Fuori islands. From here the yachts navigated around the outside of the archipelago to reach the finish line off the Gulf of Pevero.

The fresh wind put the fleet to the test and Intuition (POL), racing in the Mini Maxi Racing/Cruising Class, broke her mast just after the start. The Mini Maxi racers were the first division to start and finish and Luna Rossa took victory in both real and corrected time. Hap Fauth's Bella Mente (Minneapolis, Minn./Newport, R.I., USA) took second place on corrected time while Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo, sailing with Great Britain's multiple Olympic Gold medal winner Ben Ainslie aboard, was third. Whisper also took real and corrected victory and was followed in the Mini Maxi Racing/Cruising division by Massimiliano Florio's Grande Orazio (ITA) and Massimo Violati's Ops 5 (ITA).

Line honours in the Wally division went to Claus-Peter Offen's Y3K (GER) while on corrected time J One was followed by Thomas Bscher's Open season with Y3K falling back to third. The Racing/Cruising division saw Danilo Salsi DSK (ITA) take real time victory while on corrected time she slipped back to second behind Roma with Sagamore Enigma (ITA) in third. Hasso Plattner's Visione (GER), took line honours in the Cruising/Spirit of Tradition while Hamilton II and Vittorio Moretti's Viriella (ITA) took second and third place respectively behind Velsheda on corrected time.

Torben Grael, on Luna Rossa, was pleased with the way the day's events unfolded. "It was a good day for us," he commented. "We had a nice start, read the course well, made some nice moves and even got to the finish line ahead, which is good for small boat in a class like ours."

Racing is scheduled to continue tomorrow, Tuesday 8th, with the first signal at 11.30 for the Mini Maxi Racing division. Twelve to fifteen knots of wind from north east are forecast.

Event sites:
Live tracking: www.yccsmaxi.com ,
Event site: www.yccs.it

by Media Pro Intl

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Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup - Italy's Luna Rossa on form for Day One

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