Vintage display from the Veterans

by KPMS on 15 Sep 2007 With a fleet containing winners of some of the most famous races in the yachting world competing at the Rolex Veteran Boat Rally it was little surprise to see the old girls gathered in Porto Cervo this week relish the prospect of a race that started in a fresh 15-17 knots.

There is something about a classic with the wind at her heels, the sails pressed hard and the spray foaming off the bow.

Racing today for the three divisions was over a 16 nautical mile course that took the fleet from the start downwind into Bomb Alley at the Passo delle Bisce, and, then on down to a right turn north at Secca di Tre Monti. A fetch towards the Isolotti Monaci was followed by a beat back to Golfo Pevero and finally a short run to the finish off Porto Cervo. Division winners on the water and on handicap were Mariette, the 1915 Gaff rigged schooner; Mariella, the 1939 Bermudian Yawl and Stormvogel, the 1961 ketch with a racing pedigree that defies imagination.

The day started inauspiciously with a complete lack of discernable breeze ashore and little sign on the water that it was anything other than an oily slop. The beauty of racing in this area, though, is that one rarely has to wait long for something to arrive. The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda Race Committee are masters of the waiting game and have an uncanny knack of anticipating where the wind will build from, at what time and at what strength. When a new course was posted alongside a one-hour postponement at 0940 this morning it was clear something was cooking despite the generally unpromising look about the day ahead.

The start was a cracking affair as the yachts milled around, getting ready for the gun, in the breeze and a lumpy sea; the crews busy preparing the myriad of sails that would propel the boats downwind off the line. The biggest yacht in the fleet, the 54-metre, Shenandoah sailing with a third of her preferred racing complement found herself in deep trouble just before the gun. Over the course side of the line in a 450 tonne three-masted gaff-rigged schooner with 1,240 square metre of sail hoisted is probably not the easiest situation to rectify and accepting the OCS penalty for failing to return seemed a wise choice, especially since it meant she could enjoy the race in company with the fleet.

Mariette, by contrast, leapt off the line simply flying. She was pursued down to Secca di Tre Monti by the rest of the fleet, which barrelled into the channel between the mainland of Sardinia and the Maddalena archipelago like the proverbial freight train. For the uninitiated watching wooden rigs straining under load is quite a worrisome sight. But as Emilie de Mesel, the softly spoken Belgian skipper of Hans Albrecht's Luke designed gaff yawl, Veronique, commented the crews have great experience with these yachts and with that comes confidence,

'I always used to sail on modern boats and when I first stepped on Veronique I thought oh, this is like an antique, a museum - beautiful, but I don't dare to sail with her and was super, super careful. Actually, she is really, really strong and can handle 30 knots of wind easily. Her topmast is really fragile so the runners are very important, but she is so strong and goes really fast especially when she's reaching she gets 7.8...9...10 knots.'

And, of course, the pleasure and sensation of reaching fast downwind on a classic, with her gunwale close to the water, is quite different to a modern yacht and one can sense this just listening to the pitch of the voice of a person describing the moment.

Stormvogel was, in her day, one of the fastest racing yachts around with plaques on her bulkhead below to prove line honours in the Fastnet (1961), Buenos Aires-Rio (1962), Sydney-Hobart (1965), China Sea (1966), Transpac (1967) and Middle Sea (1968 & 69). Current owner Ermanno Traverso has owned her for some 25 years and bought her for her ocean-going qualities rather than her history, 'back then she was just a big, old maxi that nobody wanted. The era of the classic had not begun. A number of the boats you see here were left for scrap. It is only recently that people have begun to race these boats and take an interest in their history. I didn't feel like I was buying a piece of history, not then.'

Traverso's sense of pride in the yacht is quite evident and still more so because of her sailing qualities. And today, as she too screamed into Passo delle Bisce, Stormvogel's sailing prowess was unmistakable, as skipper Graeme Henry explained, 'the lines of her hull are very straight going aft. So, as soon as we ease off the sheets we don't dig a hole in the water like some of the others, we pick up, start really to run and we easily break our hull speed. Then Stormvogel really takes off.' Clearly, Traverso enjoys racing against similar boats, with similar speeds, but Stormvogel has not given up on the grand prix ocean racing circuit and next year will return to Malta - where Traverso first came across her - to participate in the Rolex Middle Sea Race and celebrate the fortieth anniversary of her first line honours victory in that offshore classic.

Mariella is another yacht here with a track record for distance racing. In 2005 she competed in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge from New York to Cowes where she enjoyed a resource sapping twenty-two day race against, coincidentally, Hans Albrecht's other classic - Nordwind. Today's race was a lot shorter and a lot quicker - Mariella completed the course in two minutes under two hours, only three minutes behind Mariette. Compared to yesterday's race, when owner Carlo Falcone readily admits they were so enjoying their race on the water with Mariette that they completely lost focus on the strategy needed to win on handicap, today was a tougher, but no less rewarding battle, 'we are very happy. We knew we did very well today. It was a good racing. Fortunately the wind built up with a nice southeasterly wind, since the more windy it is the better we sail.

Today we totally focused on the race. It was basically our last chance to do well and try to win the regatta. We forgot about Mariette, who is also another class, and we very much focused on our race. We are very pleased. The hardest results achieved are always the most appreciated.'

Mariella is an Alfred Mylne design, built by William Fife & Sons in Scotland, something that intrigues Falcone, 'it is very interesting that Fife accepted to build up a boat which was not designed by him. To make a comparison it's like in F1 that Mercedes builds a car with a Ferrari engine. The result was a nice mix which is Mariella today.'

The Rolex Veteran Boat Rally concludes tomorrow, Saturday 15th September, with a third race and then the traditional parade past this year's saluting vessel Croce del Sud, which will have aboard flag officers and officials of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. Tonight owners with enjoy the hospitality of the YCCS and Rolex at a gala dinner in the clubhouse.

The Rolex Veteran Boat Rally 2007 is organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and runs from September 11th to September 15th. 12 Metre racing took place from 11th-13th inclusive and Veteran boat racing from the 13th-15th inclusive.

For more information about the Rolex Veteran Boat Rally 2007 including entry lists and results please visit www.rolexveteranboatrally.com

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CURRENT PROVISIONAL STANDINGS
Place Boat Name, Owner/Charterer R1-R2-Points

Classic Yacht
1. STORMVOGEL, Ermano Traverso, 3-1-4.00
2. STELLA POLARE, Marivela, 2-2-4.00
3. EMERAUDE, Vittorio Cavazzana, 1-5-6.00

Vintage Bermudian Yacht
1. MARIELLA, Carlo Falcone, 2-1-3.00
2. MARJATTA, Giovanni Broggi, 1-2-3.00
3. SKAGERRAK, Raffaele Ranucci, 3-3-6.00

Vintage Gaff Yacht
1. MARIETTE, Tropical Shores, 1-1-2.00
2. TIRRENIA