The Rolex Capri Sailing Week runs from May 15th to the 19th and is organised by the Yacht Club Capri in collaboration with the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. A record fleet of 54 boats have entered in 4 classes- Farr 40s, Swan 45s, Mini Maxis and Comets. 11 nations are represented- Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, USA and Japan.

May 15, 2007
Sailing conditions on the first day were good with a west-southwesterly wind ranging from 8 to 12 knots and reaching up to 18 during the last leg of racing. The sky was cloudy to start but improved over the 5 races held. A windward-leeward course of 8 nautical miles was prepared for the Farr 40s and Swan 45s, while a 13.5 mile course was set for the Comet S and Mini Maxis. This was later reduced to 10 miles.

The Farr 40, with 16 entries, provided plenty of action with very close racing in the three windward-leeward races with disputed and close spectacular starts. Australian Lang Walker’s Kokomo with Colin Beashel calling tactics led today’s racing with two consecutive victories in the first races and a fifth place in the last, giving them an overall first place in the temporary ranking. “I’m naturally very pleased,” commented Kokomo’s owner Lang Walker. “The boat had plenty of speed and obviously the conditions of out flowing winds throughout the day suited the boat. We had good crew work and you know, we had a bit of luck out there and it was a pretty good result. We’ll be doing probably all of the European campaign and we’re off to a good start.”

Jim Richardson, in his Barking Mad (USA) with 2005 Volvo Ocean Race skipper Bouwe Bekking calling tactics, got second overall with a good performance today in two out of the three races. “Well the first regatta was very good,” said Bekking commenting the 8th placing they got in the first of today’s races. “I just did a bad job there early on, but the rest of the crew did a fantastic job today and they just kept me out of trouble… Tomorrow we will just keep sailing, and try to not make too many mistakes. Normally in the Farr 40 regattas when you finish in the top 8 every race you normally finish on the podium and of course, we like to finish on the podium, you like to win!”.

Italian favorite Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone – who looks to establish a healthy score line in these 4 regatta days which represent the fist leg of the Farr 40 European Circuit – concluded the day with a first place in the third regatta, but fell behind the leaders with a 7th place and 17th place taken in the first two races. “We started bad,” commented tactician Lorenzo Bressani, “but we finished greatly, and that’s what really counts”.

For the Swan 45s today’s racing acted as warm up racing and did not count for the Swan 45 World Mediterranean Circuit, as the Rolex Capri Sailing week is an official leg of it. Looking forward to the arrival of all the Swans entries for the Rolex Capri Sailing Week, who were also enrolled in a previous event in Portofino, the real racing will start tomorrow even if today’s races set as a perfect text for the 15 who had already arrived.

Among the Mini Maxis, Italian OPS 5 - a Baltic 60 owned by Violati Massimo, member of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda - led the 7 craft fleet in today’s 10 miles course and took first place followed by 2006 Rolex Capri Sailing Week winner Giorgio Ruffo’s Aleph, which crossed over the finish line as first in real time, as third place went to Sei Tu 2.

Comet 45s Libertine won in it’s class in today’s regatta followed by Roberto Franchella’s Aria Tx Active with a crew totally made up of sailors of the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (Italian Aeronautic Army), while Guido Morisco’s Nur arrived just third.

May 16, 2007
Day two of the Rolex Capri Sailing Week started with unstable wind conditions. Erratic southeast winds dominated the first race of the day. Winds changed suddenly suddenly during the second race to south-westerly.  The race committee decided to sail the same courses as yesterday for each class. A windward-leeward course of approximately 8 nautical miles for the Farr 40 and Swan 45 fleets, while the Comet and Mini Maxi fleets sailed approximately 13.5 nautical miles around the buoys positioned to the north of the island of Capri.

Among the Farr 40s, Gianluigi Serena’s Enfant Terrible - with Paolo Cian calling tactics –and Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone – with tactition Lorenzo Bressani – respectively won the two regattas of the day. The good performance of Nerone, who dominated the second part of today’s last regatta, brought her a 3rd place in the provisional ranking. “I risked the right side of the course,” said Bressani, commenting on Nerone’s second successful race. “All the boats were going left believing it was a paying tactic, but I choose the wrong side and we passed the first upwind buoy in fourth position. I decided to maintain the same position after the leeward buoy and this time the tactic paid off,” he added. Nerone passed the second upwind buoy in 1st place and maintained leadership of the race until the finish line, crossing it with good distance between them and Calvi and Cannonball, who followed in 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

The overall results for this division after two days of racing and five completed regattas sees Barking Mad (USA), of owner Jim Richardson, dominating overall with a 2nd and a 5th place today, followed by Lang Walker’s Kokomo (AUS), who fell behind yesterday’s top position after a disappointing 13th place in today’s first race and a 9th in the second.

Calvi (ITA), owned by former president of the European Farr 40s Association Carlo Alberini, performed well in the two races. Calvi fought against Struntje Light, who is coincidentally owned by the actual European Class Association president Wolfgang Schaefer, in the first race to take 3rd place while leading in 2nd place just ahead of Cannonball (ITA) in the following one.

For the Swan 45 division, composed of fifteen boats, two windward-leeward races were completed which both counted in the official scoring for the event after the two warm-up races competed yesterday. Atlantica Racing (ITA), owned by Carlo Perrone, dominates overall and is followed by Leonardo Ferragamo’s Cuoridileone (ITA). In the first race Atlantica came in 1st ahead of Visconti-Orombelli’s Mandolino (ITA), while taking 7th in the second race. Cuoridileone, with Nico Celon calling tactics, came in 8th in the first race and took the top spot in the second race ahead of Bellerose-Duvel (BEL) and Danilo Salsi’s DSK Comifin (ITA).

“Today’s wind conditions were very unstable,” said tactician Celon. “The wind was shifting all the time and it didn’t allow us to make any clear predictions. In the first regatta, the wind suddenly shifted to the right but I didn’t believe in it as seven boats of the fleet did, and we paid for that packing in the last part of the fleet. We slowly tried to recuperate from a tenth position but we couldn’t do very much and we concluded in 8th position. Again, in the second race we had to face difficult wind conditions. This time the wind shifted to the left, so I decided to maintain my position to this side of the course and under the entire fleet. We rounded the first upwind buoy in fourth position and then the leeward mark in first, taking the lead until the finish line.”

The all-Italian Comet division saw Maurizio Biscardi’s Libertine (ITA) - with Russia’s Serghei Chevtsov at the helm - taking the top position overall with two 1st places in corrected time. Last year’s division winner Nur (ITA), owned by Guido Morisco, came in 2nd place in the provisional ranking after having crossed the line in 3rd in both races. 3rd place overall in corrected time went to Wing Song (ITA) owned by Tasselli Rodolfo.

The Mini Maxi fleet saw Carlo Puri Negri’s Atalanta II (ITA) cross the finish-line 1st in both of today’s races before moving to 3rd place overall on corrected time behind Massimo Violati’s Ops 5 (ITA), who is actually leading the ranking, and Giorgio Ruffo’s Aleph (ITA) who took 2nd overall.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast predicts winds of approximately 11 to 15 knots coming from northerly-northwesterly directions, while conditions will be overcast with intensification in the afternoon and a shift to northerly-northeasterly winds.

Racing is due to start at 12 mid-day.

Rolex Capri Sailing Week 2007 – Provisional Results after 2 Days (Top Three)

Farr 40
Position. Yacht Name, Country, Owner, Points
1. Barking Mad, USA, Jim Richardson, 19 (8- 3- 2- 2- 4)
2. Kokomo, AUS, Lang & Sue Walker, 29 (1- 1- 5- 13- 9)
3. Nerone, ITA, Massimo Mezzaroma, 31 (7- 17- 1- 5- 1)

Swan 45
Position. Yacht Name, Country, Owner, Points
1. Atlantica Racing, ITA, Carlo Perrone, 8 (1- 7)
2. Cuordileone, ITA, Leonardo Ferragamo, 9 (8- 1)
3. Charisma, NED, Nico Poons, 11 (3-

Mini-Maxi
Position. Yacht Name, Country, Owner, Points
1. OPS 5, ITA, Violati Massimo, 6 (1- 2- 3)
2. Aleph, ITA, Ruffo Giorgio, 7 (2- 3- 2)
3. Atalanta II, Puri Negri Carlo, 10 (8- 1- 1)

Comet S
Position. Yacht Name, Country, Owner, Points
1. Libertine, ITA, Biscardi Maurizio, 3 (1- 1- 1)
2. Nur, ITA, Morisco Guido, 9 (3- 3- 3)
3. Wind Song, Rodolfo Tasselli, 13 (7- 2- 4)