Pierpaolo Ballerini, the loner who… would win the Giraglia

How do you win the Giraglia solo. if your boat is less competitive than the others, if your opponents are far more titled than you are, and if you are one of those who “okay, race but not too much” (and you bring good food on board and even have a bicycle)? With the only card left in your hand: racing tactics.

OTHER THAN MAGIC CARPET CUBED!
And so it happened that Pierpaolo Ballerini, aboard his Azuree 33 Azuree, won the Giraglia Solo Race (For the first time at the Giraglia Rolex Cup offshore regatta – 243 miles on the Saint Tropez – Giraglia – Genoa route – there was a category reserved for solo sailors): there were only three solo sailors entered (the other two were Richard Delpeut on the JPK 9.60 Walili and Frederic Ponsenard on the A35 Coco, who have great sailing behind them, such as the Transquadra: the latter even won it in 2012), but that’s not the point. Ballerini finished 47th in real time, and if the soloists had been included in the IRC Overall ranking, “Azuree would have finished in the top.” These are the words of Pierpaolo who keeps a low profile, but the “nerds” of compensated time, IRC ratings in hand, claim he would have won the long, ahead of Lindsay Owen-Jones’ mammoth WallyCento Magic Carpet Cubed. Ballerini is proving to be a particularly skilled navigator: at the last Rolex Middle Sea Race he finished fourth overall, winning among the “double-handed” (along with him Stig Westergaard).

THE WINNING MOVE
“After an unexciting start, I overtook La Fourmigue and reached the Giraglia rock in the middle of the fleet, around 100th position. My opponents were ahead.” Then the stroke of genius: “Consulting Meteo Lamma, I noted that a direct course toward Genoa would necessarily mean passing inside a becalmed bubble. So, after a reasoned choice (Ballerini was the only one who opted for this solution), I decided to set a course for La Spezia, with the walls different from the other boats, leaving the orthodromic by at least 15 miles: it turned out to be a winning move. While everyone stayed becalmed for at least five to six hours, I never went below 4 to 5 knots, arriving in Genoa in just over 50 hours, almost nine hours ahead of Walili and Coco and leaving behind so many crewed boats far more pulled than mine.” That’s the beauty of the Giraglia: the last word is never said.

leggi anche

“Air Force” dominates in the Adriatic. And now it’s off to Catanzaro