5.5 Metre Class at the XIII Raduno Vele Storiche Viareggio
by Robert Deaves on 16 Oct 2017
Start on Day 1 at the Viareggio Classic Regatta Paolo Maccione
Four Classic 5.5 Metres and one Evolution took part in the XIII Raduno Vele Storiche Viareggio, one of the most important Italian classic boat regattas. The three-day regatta was characterised by light winds, but also very warm temperatures.
With one race a day over three days Tara, ITA 78 (Maria Cristina Rapisardi, Marco Bonzanigo, Giovanni Arrivabene) took the overall win, after victory in the opening windward-leeward course and in the long distance race on the final day.
Tara is a classic Britton Chance Jr. design from 1968, commissioned by his father, Britton Chance, who won the 5.5 Gold medal at the 1952 Olympics.
The famous Grifone, ITA 42 (Positano Onofrio, Garofalo Angelo, Merola Beppe) took second place overall.
Grifone has a lot of pedigree in the class. A 1963 classic design from Einar Olson/Carl-Erik Ohlson, she was commissioned by Italian Navy and sailed by Agostino Straulino, a naval officer and one of Italy's greatest sailors as well as a double Olympic medalist in the Star class. He took Grifone to fourth place in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and then won the world championship in 1965. Grifone is still owned by the Italian Navy.
Not competing in the final long distance race, the 1983 Evolution boat Whisper, ITA 57 (Richard Leupold, Paolo Giorgetti, Claudio Mazzanti), also a Britton Chance Jr. design, took third overall. The 5.5 Metre fleet categorises its boats into Classic, Modern and Evolution. Classics, built before 1970, generally have longer keels and had the rudder attached to the keel during Olympic times, but some have separate rudders now. Evolutions include all boats built from 1970 to 1994.
Fourth placed Artemis II, AUT 9 (Peter Kuss, Ingo Hopfgarder, Wolfgang Joebstl) is a Eugène Cornu design from 1957, and the joint oldest 5.5 Metre competing in Viareggio. Since she was first built and registered in Switzerland, Artemis II has sailed under German numbers before ending up in Austria.
Fifth placed Violetta IV, ITA 21 (Giovanni Stafanon, Giangiacomo Stefanon, Franceso Stafanon) was also built in 1957, and designed by Pietro Baglietto.
On the final day only Tara and Grifone competed in the long distance race, in which the entire fleet of classic boats all raced together. Showing considerable skill, Tara led the fleet of 62 boats round the first mark.
Maria Cristina Rapisardi commented about the regatta, 'I am very happy that we had four classics here. It was a big success for the class, but we will try to be more next year, and maybe also try to convince somebody from abroad. We will start soon to advertise the event'
'We hope to see also classic boats in Gravedona (Lake Como) next June for the Swiss/ Italian championship.'
She added that the Raduno Vele Storiche Viareggio, 'was a very nice event, very well organized, with 62 classic boats, some big, some small but all racing together, and no protests because the spirit is to compete but in a friendly way.'
'Luckily we had fantastic weather. It was very hot for the middle of October and enough wind to sail.'
Overall Results:
1 ITA 78 Tara 1/2/1 (Classic)
2 ITA 42 Grifone 3/3/2 (Classic)
3 ITA 57 Whisper 2/1/DNS (Evolution)
4 Z 24 (AUT 9) Artemis II 4/4/DNS (Classic)
5 ITA 21 Violetta IV 5/5/DNS (Classic)
velestoricheviareggio.org
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