Porto Cervo, 10th September 1999

Day five

ROUND UP

Cruising and IMS Divisions sail one coastal race.
ILC Maxi's sail one coastal race and one windward/leeward.
North to north-east wind, starts at eighteen and eases to eight knots windspeed.
Four boats demolish almost 5000 square metres of spinnaker between them.
My Song retires with a broken masthead crane.
Tenders and cars race to sail loft for repairs.
Genie of the Lamp tightens grip on overall prize in the Cruising Division.
Sayonara takes back the lead from Boomerang in both IMS and ILC standings.

THE INSIDE STORY

It seemed that the wind was rattling halyards and hearts this morning, as the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup fleet hesitated on the Porto Cervo dockside. There was a marked reluctance to leave the marina, and head out for day five of the regatta. Or perhaps that was just the cumulative effect of Rolex and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's fine hospitality. But by the time the big boats of the IMS and Cruising Divisions returned to Porto Cervo, any reluctance seemed entirely justified, with almost five thousand square metres of spinnaker shredded, and a broken topmast.

Outside the harbour there was eighteen knots of north north-easterly blowing, with a moderate sea running. The drama began at the Cruising Division start, with the forty two metre Jongert, Number One, closing the door on Steve McLaren's Alejandra. Alejandra bailed out and tacked round - no small feat in a forty one metre boat. Wally B was quick out of the blocks, with tactician, Peter Bateman, commenting that Simon Fry, the owner and helmsman, 'Had done another great job at the start.' The result was Wally B rounding the windward mark first. She set her grey chute and headed for the Isola delle Bisce. Behind her, aboard Morten Bergesen's Nariida, Knut Frostad's team of ex-Innovation Kvaerner Whitbread crew and Olympic dinghy sailors were also busy setting the big kite. It lasted only seconds after it was sheeted on - the tack blew off and the crew scrabbled to get the sail back down and replace it. If they had known what was to come, they probably wouldn't have bothered.

Arriving at the Isola delle Bisce, the fleet headed up and as the apparent wind went forward, the gusts rolled around the island. Luca Bassani's Tiketitan was the first to feel it, her big gennaker splitting from head to foot. Wally B survived that puff, but not the next - the tack on the masthead chute failed. With two boats frantically changing the shredded chutes, Nariida's crew might have been justified in thinking that revenge was at hand. Then her second spinnaker also exploded from top to toe.

The action was temporarily over, until Wally B's 2.2 oz gennaker peeled off the tapes from the head on the final reach. And then Adela ripped the clew off her small reaching sail - six down in total. With Wally B and Nariida both without spinnakers for the long broad reach to the Isola de Mortoriotto, Tiketitan strolled away to line honours. They did what they could aboard Nariida, 'We got imaginative down that leg,' said Frostad afterwards, 'and set the mizzen gennaker as a spinnaker'.

The six destroyed spinnakers totalled just under 5000 square metres of sail. And it didn't take a sailmaker to figure out that there was now more broken spinnaker, than there was repair capacity. There were tenders waiting at the finish to rush the sails ashore, and cars revving on the dockside. It will be an interesting scene at the North Sails mobile loft, when that lot comes piling through the door.

The smaller boats had a less damaging day, and Roberto Vacchi's Genie of the Lamp posted another, consecutive, second to solidify her hold on the overall lead, over Marco Tronchetti Provera's Kauris II. But Magic Carpet had another bad one, and slid out of the running to seventh overall, leaving Alejandra to move up to third. There were also problems in the IMS fleet. Pier Luigi Loro Piana's My Song snapped the masthead crane off the topmast - damage that forced her to retire from the race and withdraw from the rest of the regatta. Riccardo Bonadeo's Rrose Selavy had a clean one, but it still wasn't enough to beat a rampant Sayonara on handicap. Irvine Laidlaw's Highland Fling kept it tight to take third in the IMS Division and retain third overall.

But the IMS Division overall prize is being settled by the ILC Maxi's. Today belonged to Larry Ellison's Sayonara. In the first race she won the start and controlled the beat, followed round by Sagamore and Alexia. That was how it stayed, with George Coumantaros' Boomerang in trouble, back in last until the final reach, when she managed to power over Alberto Roemmers' Alexia and take third. The ILC Maxi's sailed a second race, a windward/leeward. In the lighter air Alexia redeemed herself, winning from Boomerang, Sayonara and Jim Dolan's Sagamore. The two races give the edge back to Sayonara, and with one race left to sail, she has a four point lead over Boomerang in the IMS Division standings, but only a single point in the ILC Maxi results. Tomorrow, matters will be settled in the final race.
Written by Mark Chisnell, for The Strategic Organisation