Team Germany with Platoon leads Sardinia Rolex Cup

'PLATOON, TP 52, Team GER - winning race 1 - Sardinia Rolex Cup 2008' &copy Rolex/Daniel Forster

Day one of the Sardinia Rolex Cup 2008, organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, saw the five competing teams complete a windward-leeward race of approximately 7.5 miles despite light and shifty wind conditions.

Following today's race Team Germany leads the overall classification with both the TP52 Platoon, owned by Harm Mueller-Speer, and Wolfgang Schaefer's Farr 40 Struntje Light having taken first place. Combined with the Swan 45 Earlybird's third place the Germans now sit on five points ahead of Team Spain and Team Southern Europe.

Platoon - Sardinia Rolex Cup - &copy Rolex -CarloBorlenghi

The Race Committee waited almost three hours for a south easterly breeze of 8 knots to materialize before starting race one at 3 p.m. The breeze then proceeded to lesson to 6 or 7 knots and move right before returning to its original 135? and gradually fading out by the end of the second downwind leg. PRO Peter Reggio confirmed that at the end of the race 'the top mark was showing 1 to 2 knots and there was really no way we could start another.'

'A difficult first day in Sardinia.' admitted Jochen Schuemann, former Alinghi sailor and now Sports Director of Platoon. 'We got a really good start but due to the shifts we lost our first place. But we are very fast in light winds and we regained ground and after a real match race situation with the Russian boat in the last run, we managed to win the race.'

Marco Salvi's Telefonica Vertigo led the Swan 45 fleet for the duration to finish first for Team Spain while team mates Bribon Telefonica, helmed by Pedro Campos, and Massimo Mezzaroma's San Miguel Telefonica Nerone both took third place in the Tp52 and Farr 40 fleets respectively. The Iberian Team now sits just two points behind leaders Team Germany.

Home team Italy failed to excel today with only Vinceno Onorato's Mascalzone Latino's second place in the Farr 40s saving them from ending up bottom of the table. Instead they currently sit in fourth place, two points ahead of Team Russia.

Tomorrow's forecast predicts slightly stronger winds of approximately 10 knots from north-west. Racing is scheduled to start at 12am.

PROVISIONAL RESULTS

Position - TEAM - Points
1 - GERMANY - 5
2 - SPAIN - 7
3 - SOUTHERN EUROPE - 9
4 - ITALY - 11
5 - RUSSIA - 13