Four fleets to contest Rolex Capri Sailing Week

by KPMS on 14 May 2009
2009 marks the fifth edition of Rolex Capri Sailing Week, an event fast becoming a firm favourite on the early season Mediterranean calendar. This year four fleets will be competing on waters of the Gulf of Naples, sandwiched between an island of devastating beauty and a volcano with a reputation for devastating behaviour. Vesuvius has not erupted for over sixty years, but there is every expectation of fireworks when the Farr 40s, Swan 45s, Club Swan 42s and Comets take to the racecourse in a week's time.

The current entry list shows seventeen Farr 40s including current and three-time world champion, Vincenzo Onorato and Mascalzone Latino. These are effectively home waters for the Neapolitan, Onorato, and it would be brave bet to look elsewhere for a winner. Yet the Farr 40s are anything but uncompetitive. Giovanni Maspero will be looking to exact revenge following last year's narrow defeat in the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in Miami, along with taking an opportunity to unnerve Onorato ahead of this year's Worlds scheduled for the end of June in Porto Cervo.

Alessandro Barnaba and Fiamma, with Tommaso Chieffi as tactician, have already taken a successful tilt at Onorato's seemingly secure crown, winning the first of the European Circuit events in Porto Rotondo in April. Massimo Mezzaroma's Nerone, with the mercurial Vasco Vascotto in the hot seat, was another Farr 40 with the temerity to sneak in ahead at that event.

Of course, the Farr 40 class is not solely the preserve of the Italians. Helmut Jahn and Bill Hardesty may not have been too disappointed with Flash Gordon's fourth place showing in Porto Rotondo and with two more American boats - Jim Richardson's Barking Mad and William Douglass' Goombay Smash - joining them in Capri, they should not be short of confidence in this international fleet that also features teams from Germany, Denmark, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Rolex Capri Sailing Week is the second event of the Farr 40 European Circuit that culminates at the end of July with the Regione Sardegna Campionato Europeo Farr 40 in Cagliari.

The Swan 45s have also included Rolex Capri Sailing Week 2009 as part of its seven event European Circuit the finishes in September with the class World Championship in Argentario. Entries for this, the third event in the series, include the current World Champion, Earlybird, owned by Hendrik Brandis and Christian Nagel. Brandis and Nagel should have won at Capri last year, after a topsy-turvy week saw them head into the last day with a six-point cushion. Final day nerves or total meltdown depending how you view it saw them finish in third.

Naturally, the world championship victory later in the year would have put this result into perspective. Stiff competition should be expected from Vittorio Ruggiero's Talj. Lying second on the circuit, behind no-show No Limits, Ruggiero and master tactician Lorenzo Bressani will be aiming to make up ground. As will the only female owner/driver in the class, Tea Ekengreen-Sauren and Blue Nights from Finland, and, the Dutch team of Nico Poons and Charisma.

In the Club Swan 42 class, Nautor's Swan President Leonardo Ferragamo and Cuordileone will be looking to maintain their winning ways following victory at SNIM Marseilles in April, where they bested Enrico Scerni's Kora 4 and Ludovic de Saint Jean's Kuujjauq. Scerni took overall victory at last year's Rolex Swan Cup, so this class is another on the event roster that may prove harder to predict than it looks.

For the Comets - limited to the 41S and 45S models - all eyes will be on Libertine gunning for its third successive win at this regatta, albeit in different hands this year. Last year's helm, Biscardi, made it look easy scoring four bullets and never finishing outside the top five in the seven race series. The presence of Francesco De Angelis in the afterguard may go some way to explaining this. This year, Libertine's helmsman is Marco Paolucci, who took overall honours in the offshore component of the 2008 Giraglia Rolex Cup with a different Comet 45S - proving he is no slouch on the racecourse either.

Rolex Capri Sailing Week runs from 19 to 23 May 2009 and is organised by the Yacht Club Capri. The social highlight of the week is certain, once again, to be the Rolex Dinner and Crew Party at the Canzone del Mare, made famous by actress and singer Gracie Fields who made it her home shortly after the finish of World War II.

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