Last Lap Decides ROLEX CUP Winners

by Kate Maudslay on 13 Sep 2001 MAXI YACHT ROLEX CUP 2001
Porto Cervo - Sardinia
2nd-8th September

It started gently and ended gently, but the Rolex Cup once again lived up
to its reputation for providing testing sailing for the crews of the 26
maxi yacht entries. As the winners collected their Rolex Chronometers and
trophies at the prize-giving in the piazza of the old port side of Porto
Cervo, they knew they had had to earn them.

In three divisions, the winners were not decided until the last race had
been run. Even then, it was so close that it needed a tie-break in the
Heavy Cruiser class to give Harry Macklowe in Unfurled the verdict over
George Lindemann in the majestic, 180-foot, Adela.

Unfurled was one of few of the yachts competing that do not strip the boat
as they rarely change their set-up from cruising to racing. Unfurled is a
cruising boat but we love to race her and there is no better place to do
that than at Porto Cervo at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup. Harry Macklowe and
his crew had a fantastic week both on and off the water, winning was just a
bonus.

And there was just half a point between the two top Wallys, Alessandro
Grande in Vae Victis pipping Mattia Medici in Askherout. There had been 39
seconds and one place between them in the final race and Askherout had had
to recover from a ripped spinnaker on the second leg. It was an extremely
close contest.

Alessandro Grande is new to the Wally Class but perhaps laid down his
intentions by renaming Carrera, a Wally 77 to Vae Victus which means Woe
un to the conquered . Alessandro was delighted with the results, We
really didn t expect to win this week, a top three would have been nice but
in the last race anything could have happened and it did. Vae Victus -
the outside chance took full advantage of the varying wind to come from
nowhere on the last day.

A ripped mainsail prevented Carlo Perrone from posting five bullets for the
week. He had to settle for fourth, but could then discard that result and
count the best four, all wins, from the previous four races. His 80-foot
silver-hulled and teak-decked Virtuelle had speed and the ability to match
the performance targets calculated by the handicappers for a hull designed
by Andrea Vallicelli and a futuristic deck and interior designed by Philip
Starck.

Also out front every day was Raffael Raiola's IMS Maxi Idea, but the weeks
light conditions really favoured the two smaller yachts who were fighting
it out for the top prize in that division. Both were designed by German
Frers for the same man, Riccardo Bonadeo, but the newer, 73-foot Rrose
Selavy, with, as always, Mauro Pelaschier calling tactics and sometimes
steering, could not oust its smaller sibling.

The older, 65-foot Rrose Selavy is now Edimetra and is owned by Ernesto
Gismondi. She counted three firsts and a second to go home with a Rolex
Yacht Master Rolesium, a cup and a highly satisfactory week's work to her
credit. Our whole crew sailed very well this week and the Maxi Yacht Rolex
Cup was fantastic for us, commented Enrico Passone, helmsman of Edimetra.

In a more offbeat way, old was also beating new in the Wally class. The
founder of the Wally company, Luca Bassani, brought his new Tiketitoo and
was one of the most striking yachts moored stern-to on the old port wall.
The hull, mast and boom are all in a metallic bronze, the deck and coach
roof mix wood and mirror, and in the centre cockpit is the piano keyboard
of push button controls for the winches.

That much you can see. What is less visible is an array of underwater
appendages which have been developed using airplane dynamics. Those buttons
also control a swinging keel, so that the fin and bulb can be pushed up on
the weather side to give more righting moment. And they can raise and lower
two canard dagger boards on each side, one forward, one aft. So, at any
time, when you include the rudder, there could be four foils under the boat
giving hydrodynamic lift.

Our experience shows us that whenever you introduce an innovation, it
takes a while to fully exploit it, and the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was a great
opportunity to test the boat and optimize the tuning, Luca Bassani,
founder of Wally yachts.

Alongside him was his old boat, Tiketikan, now owned by a man who is more
used to racing cars, Thomas Bscher of Germany. In each of the first four
races the old boat beat the new, which was rather frustrating for Luca. So,
when Thomas suggested that they might swap boats for the last race and see
if it was the boat or the driver that made the difference, Luca accepted.

The good news for Luca was that, at last, he finished ahead of Thomas. The
good news for Thomas was that his boat was still the faster. Kevin
Burnham, tactician on board Tiketitan and previous 470 Olympic Silver
medallist said I think Luca believes we should be getting more speed out
of Tiketitan, but that s not been my goal. Tiketitoo is clearly faster than
us upwind so throughout the week I have been playing the game of trying to
control them at the start and stop giving them any air to breathe. Even
the change of helmsman made no change to the end result.

And the event was enjoyable, whether winning, coming second, or last. Porto
Cervo remains a highly desirable venue with its film set architecture and
fashionable shops. PierLuigi Loro Piana, who brought his 85-foot
Reichel-Pugh My Song and won the second race in the IMS Maxi division, was
amongst those who could mix business with pleasure, paying a quick visit to
the shop selling his clothes alongside other great names like Prada,
Versace, and Cartier.

The party at the Cala di Volpe was its usual elegant self and the following
night His Highness the Aga Khan showed be was not to be outdone at the
dinner given at his lair, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. The big-screen
footage of the racing - including some menacing shots of a black United
States submarine powering past the start area at 18 knots cloaked in an
amazing bulbous bow wave - drew tremendous applause.

Overall Results after 5 Races and 1 discard for each division:

Division Wally

Class : 0 Pos Yacht Owner Type Class 1 2 3 4
5 Points

POS/YACHT/OWNER/TYPE/CLASS 1 / 2 / 3 /
4 / 5 POINTS

1/VAE VICTIS /Alessandro Grande /WALLY 77/0
1.00/2.00/6.00/2.00/2.00 7.00

2/ASKHEROUT/Mattia Medici/Wally 77/0/
2.00/1.00/1.50 3.00/3.00 7.50

3/MAGIC CARPET/Lindsay Owen Jones /WALLY 77/0
4.00/3.00/1.50/1.00/4.00 9.50

4/TUAMATA /Claudio Luti/Wally 77/0
5.00/5.00/4.00/5.00/1.00 15.00

5/GENIE OF THE LAMP/Gianluca Vacchi/Wally 77/0
3.00/6.00/3.00/4.00/5.00 15.00

6/TIKETITAN/Thomas Bscher /WALLY 88/0
6.00/4.00/5.00/6.00/6.00 21.00

7/TIKETITOO/Luca Bassani Antivari/WALLY 88/0
7.00/7.00/7.00/7.00/7.00 28.00

Division IMS Racing

Class : 0 Pos Yacht Owner Type Class 1 2 3 4
5 Points

POS/YACHT/OWNER/TYPE/CLASS 1 / 2 / 3 /
4 / 5 POINTS

1/EDIMETRA VI/Ernesto Gismondi/FRERS 65/0
1.00/5.00/1.00/1.00/2.00 5.00

2/ALEXIA/Alberto Roemmers/IMS MAXI/0
3.00/4.00/3.00/2.00/1.00 9.00

3/RROSE SELAVY/Riccardo Bonadeo/FRERS 73/0
2.00/3.00/2.00/3.00/3.00 10.00

4/IDEA/Raffaele Raiola/MAXI/0
4.00/2.00/4.00/4.00/5.00 14.00

5/MY SONG/Pigi Loro Piana/R/P 85/0
5.00/1.00/6.00/5.00/4.00 15.00

6/SAGAMORE/James Dolan/MAXI IMS/0
6.00/6.00/5.00/6.00/8.00 23.00

7/BENBO