LORO PIANA SUPERYACHT REGATTA - RACE DAY 2

By Tim Thomas, Editor of Boat International

Wednesday 6 June, 2012 | Porto Cervo, Sardinia - Italy

What a difference a day makes! While yesterday’s racing was held in the fierce winds of a Sardinian Mistral, the forecast for Day Two at the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta was for the wind to switch to the south at a lighter 10 knots. As the fleet of sailing superyachts – divided into Performance and Cruising divisions – left the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda docks to prepare for the 1200 first warning signal, there was a sense of expectation that today would be altogether more comfortable than yesterday. The wind, however, was not entirely as forecast, blowing steadily from WNW as the performance division got underway.

With a long course set that would take the high-performance yachts more than 30 miles up and back through bomb alley, it was Highland Fling that nailed the start, almost squeezing My Song out at the committee boat end. The Swan Alpina chose the middle of the line, while Aegir crossed a few seconds behind Fling and My Song. There was a quick split in the fleet, as Fling headed left to the shore while Aegir went far right, and as the yachts disappeared into the channel at the entrance to bomb alley, Highland Fling had already pulled out a comfortable lead.

Next up to start were the superyachts in the cruising division, but in the few minutes after the performance yachts had begun their beat, the wind dropped away almost to nothing, before starting to fill in from a different direction. Principle Race Officer Peter Craig’s voiced crackled with surprise over the VHF race channel. ‘The southerly has crept in very quickly,’ he said as the postponement flag was raised and the committee boat weighed anchor to head north up the track. The intent was to see if the wind at the entrance to bomb alley was still from the west, giving the committee the chance to start the fleet on a similar, shorter course to the performance yachts. But once the committee boat had dropped anchor near Isola Dei Cappuccini the new breeze had followed the fleet, filling in from the east at around 10 knots, and a new course – south to Mortoriotto, round Soffi Island and back to a finish of Porto Cervo – was announced. ‘The breeze has done exactly what we thought it wouldn’t do,’ said Craig wryly over the VHF.

There was a further short delay to the cruising division start following an incident on the Performance class yacht My Song which led to the yacht retiring from the race. According to America’s Cup veteran Tommaso Chieffi, calling tactics on the yacht, the jib pulled out of the foil during a sail change and started flogging; the resulting shock loading broke a block which struck team member Cico Rapetti, who was at the mast, just above the knee. The on-water paramedics were in attendance within minutes, and My Song returned to Porto Cervo where Rapetti was taken to hospital for checks.

For much of the first beat, the yachts followed their start sequence, although the second yacht to start in the staggered sequence, Scorpione Dei Mari, looked to be sailing well and had quickly caught up with first starter Ganesha, who looked to be struggling in the lighter conditions – perhaps due to the fact that she is rated to a smaller headsail than most. By the time the fleet reached Mortoriotto, Scorpione Dei Mari had a comfortable delta of around two minutes. Ganesha rounded second, hotly pursued by the Southern Wind fleet which was revelling in the relatively light conditions. Both the 30.2m Mrs Seven and one of the later starters, the 28.6m Kiboko, had made cracking progress. They were closely followed around the rocky outcrop by Annagine, I-Sea, Cape Arrow, the 24m Ivanka and Moonbird, with L’Ondine and Salperton still in contact – eight yachts rounding within five minutes of each other.

At the corner of Soffi Island, at which points the yachts gybed and dropped their kites to hit a reach, some smart manoeuvring by the crew of Kiboko had moved them up to second, behind Scorpione, while further back the 45m Salperton was making good progress through the fleet. Moonbird and L’Ondine were having a small battle towards the rear, with the giant 57.5m ketch Twizzle bringing up the tail.

Both Kiboko and Mrs Seven sailed well on the reach up towards the finish, and a slick bit of sail handling on the final, short run to the finish line ensured not only line honours for Kiboko, but also a win on corrected time. Mrs Seven held on to second on corrected, with Scorpione Dei Mari bringing home a third on corrected to add to their third place from yesterday.

In the racing fleet, it was Highland Fling that took a comfortable victory both on the water and on corrected time today, with Aegir coming home in second and Alpina third.