Italy leads international team race challenge

Porto Cervo, Italy (June 21, 2018) – Competition in the Audi Invitational Team Racing Challenge got underway today for the biennial regatta hosted by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. Sailed in J/70s, the format is 2 on 2 and has attracted seven teams for the third edition of the event.

The competitors include Newport Harbor Yacht Club (USA), winner of the 2016 edition, a team from renowned British club the Royal Thames Yacht Club as will Gamla Stans Yacht Sallskap, Eastern Yacht Club and teams from the celebrated New York Yacht Club and Royal Yacht Squadron – both of which are twinned with the YCCS. The home team representing the YCCS will also take part.

The first day of racing was characterised by light wind. The host team from YCCS sits at the top of the classification followed by Newport Harbor Yacht Club and in third place, on level points, two more American teams: Eastern Yacht Club and New York Yacht Club.

After an initial postponement of the first starting signal due to light winds, the Race Committee got racing started at approximately 13.30 today on the regatta course in front of Porto Cervo Marina. The seven competing yacht clubs – 14 crews in total – completed the first round robin of the event today.

Opening racing were the two crews representing YCCS, headed respectively by Antonio Sodo Migliori and Edoardo Mancinelli Scotti, who today claimed victory in all six of the races run. Stars and Stripes dominated second and third place in the standings, with the Newport Harbor Yacht Club (skippers Justin Law and Mac Mace) preceding the other two participating US teams – Eastern Yacht Club (skippers Spencer Powers and Stein Skaane) and New York Yacht Club (captained by Brian Doyle and Will Graves) – tied in third place with an extra race run.

Filippo Maria Molinari, Team Captain of YCCS, commented: “We’ve given all the participating teams a good welcome, we were able to win all our races today and we are of course pleased. There is a little more wind forecast for tomorrow, today we had very light conditions, 7-8 knots up to 10, but the day was very pleasant. Most likely we are at an advantage because we have a light crew, we’ll see what happens in the next few days with stronger wind.”

Event details: https://www.yccs.it/en/regate-2018/audi_invitational_team_racing_challenge-259.html

Source: Marialisa Panu/Giuliano Luzzatto