After an exhilarating day of yesterday on Thursday, where the breeze reached close to 30 knots in the straits, Friday's conditions turned inside out for the Rolex Swan 45 World Championship fleet racing off Porto Cervo, and patience was the skill to have.
With racing slated only for the Swan 45 fleet, as part of their Rolex Swan 45 World Championship, the nine-boat fleet was scheduled for a 12:00 (local time) warning signal. Principal Race Officer Peter Craig and his race committee were on station and elected to postpone the start until 14:35 when the breeze steadied enough from the north-northeast at seven knots to get the seventh race in the series off.
Vittorio Codecasa on
Jeroboam Ca'Nova (ITA) scored a win in the only race today - windward/ leeward (1.5nm) twice around - with Tea Ekengren on
Blue Nights (FIN) in second, and defending World Champion Nico Poons on
Charisma (NED) in third.
Codecasa said, "
Today was a short race but a complex one, especially at the start when the boats were all very close together, it was very technical and very interesting. We started well, although Charisma started better, and we rounded the top mark second. We were then able to choose the correct side of the course and came in first with a decent lead."
Poons recapped Charisma's race, "
We had a good start, we were first at the upwind mark by a minute or more and Jeroboam was second. Then we wanted to cover our opponents, EarlyBird and Samantaga, so we gybed, but Jeroboam and Blue Nights had a little bit more wind and arrived in front of us, since the race committee also shortened the course (to 1.2nm) because of a lack of wind, and so we finished in third. The first top boats are very close to each other. Everything is completely open."
Hendrik Brandis on
Earlybird (GER) is leading after seven races with 24.50 points;
Charisma is second with 26.0 points, and
Samantaga-Duvel (BEL) is third with 27.0 points.
Racing concludes on Saturday for the Rolex Swan 45 World Championship. Three races are planned. With eight or more races, a throw-out is allowed; however, the Islands Long Race cannot be excluded.
For more information about the Rolex Swan Cup 2010, including the entry list and results please visit -
www.yccs.it.