Sanremo IRC Europeans takes off

After the two days of light winds, eventually yesterday the Gulf of Sanremo delivered nearly perfect sailing conditions, so much so that the organisers  opted to recover the schedule by having three windward-leeward races.

Following one hour’s delay the postponement flag ashore was taken down at around 14:00 and the fleet left the marina.

The day’s first starting procedure began at around 14.40 with the fleet enjoying an excellent westerly of 8 to 9 knots. In just over one hour to the leaders covered the 8 mile course (reduced to 6 miles for the smaller boats) and cross the finish line, just metres off the Sanremo port breakwater. The leading group typically comprised the powerful TP52s, with a especially good performance by the Felci 61’ Itacentodue with Italian Andrea Casale calling tactics.

Swiftly, the Race Commitee, led by PRO Mario Lupinelli, began the procedure for the day’s second race, while the westerly kept increasing, topping 16 knots and around 18:30 the third race set sail, ending a fantastic day on the water.

“Absolutely fantastic, real champagne sailing conditions. We didn’t expect to have three races today, but all of them were beautiful. Sunny, flat water, good wind, perfect. Thanks to the Race Committee for organising them,” said Vadim Yakimenko, owner of TP52 Freccia Rossa once back to the pontoon. “We won two races today. It’s great fun to fight against other TP52s, it’s quite like a one-design fleet, very interesting indeed.”

Yesterday’s races not only ensured the championship’s validity – requiring a minimum of three races to be sailed – but contributed to better shaping the leaderboard in each of the classes.

On the eve of the penultimate day, the IRC 0 class is led by TP52s Freccia Rossa, Howard Dyer’s Rowdy Too and Team Vision Future skippered by Jean-Jacques Chaubard.

Scoring a second and two bullets, the GP42 Confluence Sopra of France’s Jean-Pierre Joly holds a three points margin in IRC1,  with Renzo Grottesi ’s Swan 42 Be Wild and Valter Pizzoli’s Swan 45 Ange Transparent second and third respectively.

The First 40 Sayann, skippered by Paolo Cavarocchi is leading in IRC2, followed by Gian Marco Magrini’s A40 Vito 2 and Mario Rosselo’s First 45 Obsession respectively 4 and 5 points behind.

In IRC 3, the largest class with 14 entrants, Yves Ginoux’s Farr 36 Absolutely II scored three bullets today which put the French team on top with a nine point advantage over Gianluigi Dubbini ’s Italia 998 Sarchiapone and 13 ahead of Karel Olsthoorn’s MAT1010 Flower Power.

In the IRC 4, the JPK 10.10 Alkaid 3 owned by France’s Christophe Heurtault scored two wins today that enabled it to overtake the two Italian First 34.7s, Marcello Focosi’s Faster 2 and  Giuseppe Morani’s Vulcano 2.

Racing will resume today, the weather forecast is for a light to medium wind that hopefully will enable the fleet to sail a maximum of three windward-leeward races.

Full results are available at this link.