Costa Smeralda offers stunning day for Maxi fleet

Porto Cervo, Italy (September 2, 2014) – On the second day of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Rolex Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship had the 35 teams split onto windward-leeward and coastal courses.

The Mini Maxi fleet, Wally Class an J-Class fleet completed two windward-leeward races while the remaining classes, including the Mini Maxi Racer/Cruiser Class, raced on a scenic 25-mile course with the iconic Monaci Lighthouse as the first mark, before rounding Secca dei Tre Monti and heading south to Mortoriotto. Hugging the rugged coast line and hauntingly beautiful islands along the Costa Smeralda, it was a stunning day on the water with spectacular scenery.

Enjoying success today was Jeremy Pilkington’s RP 78, Lupa of London which was victorious in the Mini Maxi Racer/Cruiser Class and Roberto Tomasini Grinover’s JV72, Robertissima III, which scored a first and a second in today’s Mini Maxi Racing Division.

Jeremy Pilkington’s RP 78, Lupa of London won today’s coastal race by three minutes from Vladimir Liubomirov’s Swan 60, Bronenosec with Gerard Logel’s Swan 601, Arobas third.

“With a northerly wind direction it normally pays to go up the shore on the beat, which all of us did bar All Smoke but today offshore paid and All Smoke got a big lift and came into the picture,” noted Eddie Warden-Owen, tactician on Lupa of London.” On Lupa, we played a few shifts to our advantage and got around the Monaci Lighthouse ahead of All Smoke and then the big decision was which spinnaker to go with. We chose the reacher, which was good for the breeze at that time but when it went light the chasing pack came back at us. The Lupa of London crew did a great job, anticipating sail changes and it was all about making the right decisions, Jeremy did a great job at the start and the crew performed well.”

Roberto Tomasini Grinover’s JV72, Robertissima scored a first and a second in today’s Mini Maxi Racing Division to have the best score line of the day. Robertissima’s tactician, Vasco Vascotto spoke after racing.

“Before the start of the race, we had a big discussion about the wind conditions because we had a different forecast to what we were seeing on the race course. We were a little nervous but we trusted our forecast and I think we made the right choice and the team did a great job, you have to get everything right to win in this fleet, if you make one mistake you have to pay the bill!. This is the first championship for this team on this boat and we are trying to speed it up as much as we can. Roberto is becoming a great sailor, for sure he is the guy that is learning more and more and we are very proud of his effort and how much he is learning.”

Robertissima’s owner, Roberto Tomasini Grinover was a very happy man as he came ashore and spoke about Robertissima’s success today.

“It was a very complicated day, with light winds, big waves and a very shifty wind direction. We are specialists for the windward leeward because of our Melges 32 campaign. We feel very comfortable on this type of course and we were confident today. I am really enjoying the regatta because the atmosphere between the Mini Maxi owners is excellent, we are the latest entry into the class but the class has been very familiar, very open and helpful about everything, it is like a big family and I hope that they will all be coming to our big party tonight.”

Racing continues through September 6.

Event website – Results

Report by event media. Photo of Roberto Tomasini’s ROBERTISSIMA III (GBR) leading the Mini Maxi fleet around the windward mark, by Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi.