’Mascalzone Latino’ of Italy has won the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship for the second time. Vincente Onarato and his crew on ‘Mascalzone Latino’ finished 35 points ahead of nearest rivals ‘Alinghi’ after nine races off the icy waters of Copenhagen, Denmark. Mascalzone becomes the 2nd team to win the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds twice (Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad is the other), and the first team to win back to back.

After receiving the trophy the crew and Onarato were dunked in the chilly water. Onarato, still smiling proclaimed:”I feel wonderful. Mascalzone first, Alinghi second. It’s my dream. Next dream is to do that in the America’s Cup maybe. Winning and defending the Worlds is just a matter of luck maybe. The secret was just to be relaxed. It is just a sail race and you must stay relaxed all the time. When things are happy you must not be so happy. When things are wrong you must not be so unhappy. This is the secret to be successful at the end. I have wonderful people on board. This world championship does not belong to me but to them. Because I have this wonderful crew we won and with this wonderful crew we will win again and I sincerely mean that.”

The last race on Saturday resulted in changes at the top of the scoreboard as Barking Mad’s (USA) 26th place and Alinghi’s 7th place resulted in the American team finishing 3rd overall. John Thomson’s Infinity (USA) with a 3rd place on Saturday, moved from 15th to 7th overall. An OCS in Race 8 took ‘Alinghi’ them out of contention for the overall title.  Owner/helmsman of ‘Alinghi’ Ernesto Bertarelli is keen to continue in the Farr 40 class and has plans to race in Key West Race Week and the 2008 Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in Miami Beach in April.

‘Alinghi’ tactician Brad Butterworth had the following to say about Mascalzone’s win, “Their scoreline is impressive, they are sailing consistently well and they seem to have a click of speed on most of the other boats. They done a great job of making the boat fast, but then you have to sail it properly and that’s what they do and they come out of the pack when thing’s are not too easy.pretty good team.”.

For the local Danish fleet, it was a good ending as HRH Crown Prince Frederik’s ‘Nanoq’ (DEN) had a great start off the pin end of the line, led at all of the marks and held off a threatening Opus One (GER) downwind for their first win. Today’s score moved them up from 18th to 8th overall and Nanoq was the highest placed Scandanavian boat.

Barking Mad finished in 3rd place overall with 87 points. Owner/helmsman Jim Richardson commenting on Mascalzone’s win, “Winning in the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship is always a very, very difficult task. And to win it two times in a row is fantastic. Our hats are off to Vincenzo Onorato and his team. Now we’re tied two to two and we’re looking for him in Miami - we’ve already discussed this so he knows we’re going to be battling in the future again, but it is sincerely a great accomplishment.”

The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship celebrated its 10th anniversary in Copenhagen with 36 teams from 13 countries competing. Richardson, president of the Farr 40 Class Association said, “It’s been a wonderful championship. Coming here to Copenhagen has been a bit of a step out of our normal comfort level, but they’ve done a great job. It is a wonderful facility and to be able to support sailing up in the Nordic region has been very, very good. It was wonderful to see the Crown Prince win the last race and to finish in the top ten. It’s got to help up here so a lot of people were very happy with that including people who lost the race.”

Talking about the 2008 Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, Richardson added, “Everyone is looking forward to Miami, I think the weather might be a little warmer and a little sunnier and it should be a lot of fun. More palm trees definitely. And we won’t have to import any - they’ll all be there.” The 2008 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship will be held in Miami Beach, Florida, USA from April 16 - 19. The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship joins other prestigious Rolex-sponsored 2007 events including the Rolex Fastnet Race, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Rolex Big Boat Series and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Nanoq was the winner of the Rolex Race Day. The final awards party was held on Saturday evening where the Mascalzone Latino, overall winner was officially presented with the Farr 40 World Champion trophy and a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece in Rolesium. Click on the photos for descriptions and photo information. Copyright Rolex and photographers mentioned.