An Italian Swan 65 is beating everyone to the world tour (Vittorio Malingri tells why)

Steinlager II
and Lion of New Zealand, the honor escort, legendary names for those who have any idea what they mean. The first was the iconic boat in which Sir Peter Blake (perhaps the greatest sailor ever) won the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race, the only one in history to win all the legs, 6 out of 6. The second, again with Blake at the helm, was the winner of the ’84 Sidney-Hobart, and then competed in the ’85 Whitbread. Two pieces of history, in short, to welcome Translated 9 upon his arrival in New Zealand, a veteran of a deadly crossing, ran with the knife between his teeth and ended with a resounding hat trick: 1st place in Line of Honors; 1st place in IRC; 1st place in class (Flyers). This, in short, is the result of the Italian Swan 65 in this second leg of the Ocean Globe Race, the round-the-world regatta celebrating the first Whitbread Round the World Race (1973), running in crews (most of them non-professional) with technologies from the 1970s.

Translated 9 dominates the second leg of the Ocean Globe Race

If the victory in the first leg (Southampton – Cape Town) already marked an important achievement, not only for crew and team, but for Italy-which for the first time won a Leg victory in a “Whitbread”-this second victory makes a sensation. Especially considering the competition, newer and longer hulls, but most importantly, incredible hulls, including Tabarly and Maiden‘s Pen Duick VI, former boat of the great Tracy Edwards. We talked about it with Vittorio Malingri, skipper of the Swan 65 Translated 9, who told us about the stage and talked about the future, with Cape Horn in front waiting for everyone.

For those who don’t know what the Ocean Globe Race is, we explain it HERE

Cape Town – Auckland: the feat of Translated 9

Cape Town – Auckland. In a nutshell, it means launching immediately eastward along the southern coast of Africa, jumping into the Indian Ocean and escaping south, so far south, down into the southern 40s and beyond, bordering on the 50s. And it is no coincidence that they call them the Roaring Forties (the Roaring Forties): the wind is really beating, the waves are two- or three-story buildings, and it is cold, so cold. And so on, running eastward, past Cape Leeuwin, past Australia, all the way back north taking in the Tasman Sea, north of New Zealand’s paradisiacal coastline, to its northern tip, and then back south to the Gulf of Auckland. Almost 40 days at sea. Tanslated 9 thus achieved its podium finish, in 36 days and 7500 nautical miles. Here is what Vittorio Malingri, skipper for the four legs, told us:

“We started off loaded from the very beginning”-reports Vittorio-“with the goal of getting to the real first. And right from the start we played it off with the others, especially Pen Duick, who was already on the line. With five minutes to go we still had the sails down and a man at the masthead setting up the last few things. It was a new tree. Just left, with Maiden, Spirit of Helsinki and the Pen Duick running faster, we jumped south, stretching the spinnaker longer, over 30 knots, to salvage what we could by pushing the boat to the limit. Then down to “cathedral,” Genoa tangoning and running away at a gun. “

“We got to the first waypoint farther south than anyone else, and then headed back north to avoid two depressions from the bulletin, but they never came and we slowly headed back south, relying on the barometer and sniffing. At that point we descended quite a bit, down south, to take more advantage of the depressions and make less way.”

“We took major depressions, a lot of crosswind, sometimes downwind. We stayed there for a week, struggling with the wind behind in the depressions, with no sun, 1, 2 degrees, huge waves and fog, escaping to the east, and then climbing back to the 2nd waypoint. Here we lost some air, and miles as a result, with Spirit of Helsinki and Maiden catching up a good hundred miles on us, coming not a little closer. The Pen Duick meanwhile had escaped 400 miles ahead. Reaching Way Point we escaped back down south into the Roaring Forties. Here, however, we no longer knew where the others were because the radio was struggling to work.”

“By sniff and barometer we ran further and further south, more depression and front from behind. Assuming that Pen Duick was already with us in the front as well. A few days later, as we were already going up to tasmania, we realized from looking at the pilot charts that there would be less air there, so we decided to stay down longer, keeping high in the 40s to go back up north later. As the depression passed, we moved back toward sunshine, with milder latitudes and winds dropping. In a wide upwind. Here the fear was running out of wind while those behind had it instead and ran with a knife in their mouths.”

“It wasn’t until we got close to New Zealand that we discovered we were a few hundred miles ahead of Maiden and 651(Spirit of Helsinki), while Marie (Tabarly, Pen Duick VI) didn’t know where she was. All this, running along the paradise that is the New Zealand coast. As soon as the North Point was turned, the wind started to drop, but it returned in the night, between the islands. Winds, twenty-five, thirty knots and upward, all upwind tight, sticking to the coast until morning, when we found Steinlager II and Lion New Zealand waiting for us. Gorgeous. We were escorted all the way into the bay that precedes the channel leading to Auckland, all under a hard wave in the face, bitch.”

“A very cool passage, all in sickle cell. Of course, we were fine until the last, where we were still pardoned. Beautiful, we finally enter the sort of harbor-canal in front of Auckland, holding tight on one side to avoid the area used for commercial traffic, and here we boil to the finish line. A tight upwind, full of turns because there is not much space. All very tight turns, until the last one, with the foresail in the water viro and the boat nothing, bow to wind and standing still. Sand bank. It was 45 seconds that lasted an hour, but with necked sails and skidding the boat we came out easily actually. Then the finish line, first. Amazing.”

Considerations, Cape Horn and the lethal weapon: Peter Luciani

Basically, as Malingri pointed out, the Ocean Globe Race has 2 categories of participants: those who want to experience the round-the-world adventure, and those who come in with a knife between their teeth and want to win. Obviously, the Flyer Class corresponds to the second one.

“For us, the approach was simple: the boat was broken down and we put it back together on par with a boat built from new. So there is little to be done, few excuses. We have a new boat basically, but we are the only cruising boat. Then, sure with our waiver in Flyer Class (Translated 9 -former ADC Accutrac-is in Flyer as a participating hull in a Whitbread), we have become the most competitive Swan 65 but, by design, it is still a hull with a different spirit. But it has its advantages. We have comfortable spaces, boiler, hot water heating. And we have been lucky. Of course, 7/8-meter waves are no joke, really heavy winds, but the bats took the ones behind. And then how nice is this “Translated” spirit, seeing the people on board grow up. They’re great people, become monsters, really good good people.” (ed. 70% of the crew are non-professionals and are largely young people).

“For the next stage, the goal is knife between the teeth, and try to make first on every front. Then what will come will come. Now we will have to fix the boat well, because it is crucial to be efficient and to start with everything at the top. Then you will go down to the right, taking the shortest route and pulling the boat’s neck within an acceptable limit of risk, both to the hull and to people. And we’ll see, no one on board has ever done the Horn, I’m curious. We will also have, among others, Trombetti as co-skipper, as well as a lethal weapon: Pietro Luciani. He, really cool, so it’s a lot cool to have him on board, a great navigator. I mean, let’s see what happens.”

Ocean Globe Race: Anatomy of the Flyer Class

Now, to understand the hype, one parameter should also be analyzed that, while not fundamental, wants its own, especially looking at the Line of Honors: hulls in the water. Translated 9 is, perhaps the 3, if not 4 boat in terms of speed. The parameter is simple: design type, original intended use, age, waterline length.

Translated 9
is, in fact, a
Swan 65
, an iconic 1971 design by Sparkman & Stephens. It is a production boat, excellence among the performance-cruisers of its time, but it is a boat of unusual design for this type of activity: the slips are plentiful, the waterline length is short, and it weighs, a lot. After all, it was a boat designed for deep-sea cruising; it is comfortable and solid, but it is massive. Of course, then he runs. As a project it won the first Whitbread, in 73′, then taking 2nd and 5th place in 77′ (Translated 9 was 5th, then ADC Accutrac). But, on the theoretical level, it plays at a disadvantage.

The
Pen Duick
(formerly Éric Tabarly’s, now Marie Tabarly’s) was designed for the ’73 Whitbread, later participating in ’77 and ’81 as well, and is longer, with an impressive 22.25 meters in Loa versus 19.8 in Translated 9, to which the lower slips are added, for a couple of extra meters at the waterline, easily worth a couple of knots.

Maiden, in turn, is a racer as pure as she is iconic, a 58-footer from ’79 brought to glory by Tracy Edwards, who slipped it into legend with the 1989 Whitbread, skippered and crewed by the first all-female crew and runner-up in her class. An icon, in short, the smallest of them all at 18 feet, but newer, lighter and faster.

The
Neptune
(1977) e
L’Esprit d’Equipe
(1981) conclude the Flyer Class, both great Whitbread veterans and newer. Shorter also, in LOA, but different in design, with minimal overhangs compared to the early 1970s designs, and thus with equivalent waterline lengths, but different weights. Not to mention that, they, too, were designed for this. However, as sailing has often shown us, these are all details, trifles at sea. A thousand other aspects, a thousand other coincidences and chance, and crews make the game.