Vittorio Malingri: “We TOPPED, and I’ll explain why.”

What does a great sailor do after a defeat? He certainly does not seek justification, but he tries to understand what he did wrong. And that is what Vittorio Malingri did. (the Italian sailor with the most miles on his back), who with his son Nico set out on his 20-foot Feel Good uninhabitable cat to conquer the Portofino-Giraglia-Portofino record: Ugo and the Dwarf (these are the nicknames of father & son) took just over 19 hours to complete the 148-mile course, almost two more than Ambrogio Beccaria Balduzzi and Bernardo Zin, their opponents (aboard Alla Grande Ambeco, a smaller but lighter F18). He does not hide behind a finger, Malingri, and writes, on his Facebook page: “Not all donuts come with a hole. Without ifs and buts, we TOPPED.” Note the “patched” in capital letters. (photo by Andrea Falcon)

VITTORIO MALINGRI’S ANALYSIS
“Sorry I’m late, I slept in this morning. I was pretty chopped up. It was bitterly cold. Not every doughnut comes with a hole. Without if and without but we have TOPPED. Because it is sports its peculiarity is: you cannot win all the time. Again as a sport: if you gave it your all, that’s okay. It doesn’t bother me, however, you have to understand it well so that you don’t make the same mistakes again and increase your experience….

THE CHOICE OF WEATHER WINDOW
In two months of weather stand-by, an exaggeration for a record, we constantly observed the weather on the course. The desired wind pattern has finally begun to emerge, the grecale. We saw, however, that this system depended on a small depression to the W of Corsica, which moves into the area with great speed and without much predictive ability. Depending on the position of this low pressure, the grecale, in the second half of the path, may be more N/E more E or S/E. Depending on this in turn there is an influence on the winds, weak, irregular and variable in direction, along the Ligurian coast from La Spezia to Portofino,the first part of the route. Another fact is that in the two months of study, we always encountered insufficient conditions to hold the desired averages, from Portofino to the height of Spezia, and vice versa on the return. It is difficult to know, depending on the winds present offshore, how far from shore it is best to sail to cross these the inevitable becalms at their narrowest part, or how far the wind extends from shore. By throwing all these elements into the pot, we finally identified the favorable weather system. Apart from a brief moment when there seemed to be conditions for a simultaneous rehearsal, we always tried to pinpoint the time of departure, within the chosen weather system, to try to take advantage of the more muscular wind conditions, which the boat needs as it is “oceanic,” and therefore more robust and bulky than an F18.

NAVIGATION.
The choice of departure went on the morning around 6 o’clock. We lost some time, due to the transponder not working, and we left at 7:49. The wind was weak as expected, but of sufficient angle and intensity to give us 10 knots, however, the sea was very cross and braked the boat. There were also several moments of wind drop and thus further loss of time in the first 30 miles.. Since we hooked East we flew to Giraglia always above 10 average with peaks at 17/18 knots making up some of the lost time. The return was more from the N/E than expected and then close-hauled, lots of wave and then again always only at max.10 average and no chance of further recovery. We managed to point Monterosso but 20 miles from shore the wind dropped and the speed collapsed. At that moment we were still holding 10 knots average, but unfortunately we started to trudge between windy areas and becalmed bubbles. This was theoretically not expected; the charts consulted showed a nice strong breeze stretching well offshore over the entire Ligurian coast, allowing for sailing by varying gaits but without interruptions.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
In summary the record Portofino Giraglia Portofino in F20 class is difficult, and so a very serious thing. Little time to catch up, and only on the halfway point. difficult area meteorologically, but perhaps also the season. On the other hand, for cabin cruisers it is a different kettle of fish because they can also consider sailing from 30 knots and up, which we exclude. And in those the wind gets everywhere on the course. By the way since it seems like a long story, better to go back when it’s warm, This definitely the most sound advice. Even Ambrose and Bernardo, who had just arrived, were convinced they had taken too long. They, too, felt that they lost a lot of time in the becalmed moments along the coast, but on the way out they walked all the time.

THE “C” FACTOR.
In short, a little can be predicted but you also have to have better luck coping with the wind-weary moments of departure and arrival. They have to be put on the bill, and here unfortunately it also opens up to luck or bad luck. One can arrive in 15 hours, as we had all more or less thought it possible to do, and then stand 3 hours 4 miles from arrival looking at the Portofino lighthouse.

AMBROSE AND BERNARD, WHAT “GLADIATORS”
I am glad to have brought this course to Italy, as you have seen it is hypertechnical though short. I am glad that Federvela has approved our regulations and the procedures have been started twice successfully. After all, this is the main reason we chose to bring a trial to Italy, to a place where easy logistics already existed for those who wanted to try their hand at it. Even at very low cost, like Ambrose and Bernard. I am glad that there is someone who has taken up the challenge, and even plotted the first groove in the water and made the best time to date. Ambrose and Bernard also sailed more at night and always on the trapeze and wet, in that cold weather there, real “Gladiators.” They were also good at finding the boat, preparing her and themselves in a short time, and leaving at the first good opportunity. Now the way is open, anyone can show up on the starting line patrolled by FIV judge Marco Cimarosti, to whom a huge thank you goes for helping me put this together and assisting us on the line with his professionalism“.