FY61 Ita Centodue wins the prologue of the Rolex Giraglia

The “warm up” of the Rolex Giraglia, i.e., the two transfer races from Genoa and Saint Tropez to the port from where the “long” race will start Wednesday at 1 p.m., has concluded in San Remo. A prologue made very difficult for both the French and Italian fleets by the very light wind conditions affecting the Ligurian Sea in these hours, which is covered by a wide high pressure.

First across the finish line, at 10:01:16 minutes, was Vadim Yakimenko’s TP52 Freccia Rossa (already the winner on time of the 2018 Rolex Giraglia) coming from Saint-Tropez, followed a few minutes later by Frederic Puzin’s Ker 46 Daguet 3, which thus overtook the Russian TP on corrected time in the IRC ranking (third was Jean-Luc Hamon’s JPK10.10 Raging Bee). Also from the French side, the first of the ORC Class, Oscar Chave’s DK46 Hydra, arrived at 12:06.
On the Genoese side, however, there was an excellent performance by the crew of Adriano Calvini’s Itacentodue, which managed to overtake the always fast Pendragon VI of Carlo Alberini and Arca Sgr of Furio Benussi on corrected time. After 21 hours of racing, the Felci 61 and its crew made up of young athletes from the Italian Yacht Club and led by the expert direction of Tommaso Chieffi and Ambrogio Beccaria, led a beautiful race, completed with 36 minutes to go before the time limit expired.

Of value was the performance of Adriano Calvini’s FY61 Ita Centodue. A boat, designed for fast cruising, now no longer brand new but with some miles in its wake, that has proven even today, and thanks to a crew of undisputed caliber, that it is still competitive. Of course the opponents for the offshore trial will be more numerous, but Ita Centodue is one of the boats to keep an eye on for the long run as well. The Reichel Pigh 78 Capricorn, the Cookson 50 Kuka 3, the Vismara 62 Leaps & Bounds formerly SuperNikka, the Wally 100 Magic Carpet 3, and the maxi 100 Arca are some of the “biggies” that will be vying for the victory of the regatta, which for the overall trophy will be awarded with the IRC ranking, although there will then be separate ORC and X2 rankings.

For the offshore trial, a small pertubation may be on its way that will bring òa fleet to face medium winds first from the southern quadrants and then rotating northward, with the risk of many hours of upwind during the little more than 250-mile course.

www.rolexgiraglia.com

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