Nespresso Cup - J One clinches first race

by Julie Royer on 8 May 2010 The first day of the Nespresso Cup, the very first exclusive Wally regatta, has drawn to a close after a day of challenging conditions on the waters of Portofino. The Nespresso Cup brings together an interesting blend of people who all share a passion for competitive sailing, for performance and for the beauty of the Wally yachts.

As the fleet of Wally yachts nestled in the beautiful surroundings of Portofino left their moorings and headed out towards the racecourse, expectations were running high. The weather tested the crews patience as they waited for a breeze to stabilize under sullen skies. Eventually, the first and only race of the day one got underway in the early afternoon and it was the 80ft Wally yacht J One driven by owner Jean-Charles Decaux who came out on top, after a two-lap windward/leeward duel, ahead of Lindsay Owen Jones’ 95ft Magic Carpet Squared : 'It was very exciting, we had to wait a bit for the wind, the boats were all very close,' said Owen Jones. 'It was very shifty and unpredictable and nobody was really sure what the right choices were. This regatta has bought the Wallys together for the first time and it is fantastic to see – I was one of the very first Wally owners with the first Magic Carpet which, in fact, was the boat that won today and I feel a bit of pride in this whole thing - to see the fleet growing and now a sponsor coming to help us, it is great.'

Hans-Joachim Richter, Corporate Communications Director, Nespresso who joined the crews today commented: 'The first day of the Nespresso Cup has been a unique experience, bringing together these high-performance Wally yachts and all the teams that have shown such passion for this event.'

Nespresso Cup Race Ambassador, Loick Peyron, joined Luca Bassani, President and Founder of Wally, on board the 101ft Indio. Launched last year, Indio manage to pass her near-sistership Y3K, on the final lap and from the top mark had a tremendous downwind tussle with Magic Carpet2 to cross the line first as the 10-knot breeze faded, but had to settle for third overall on corrected time: 'It was really interested because these boats are not exactly the same – they are different sizes – and especially the first three boats we had a tremendous race. I sailed with the creator of the Wally yachts, Luca Bassani, on Indio and it was very interesting. In the sailing arena you don’t care about speed, you just care about performance and what is interesting about maximum speed is to try and be better than the others with the same tools, and these boats are built to be fast. And the look of these boats, at the start, with all the different colours, this is something special.'

The Wally crews will be looking forward to more racing tomorrow as the forecast is predicting a bit more breeze and warmer conditions. Tiketitoo owner, Alberto Palatchi, who finished fifth overall but triumphed in her division: 'Well, the day started in a very bad mood with a very rainy day – we thought we were in England not Italy! We won today in the Performance category so we look forward to going to the podium on Sunday! Francesco (de Angelis) was really a gift to have on board, he is a guest of Nespresso, and he gave us a lot of ideas and a lot of tactics.'

Day 1 7.5.10 Results (Provisional)

Overall Top 3:

1 J One / Wally 77 / Jean-Charles Decaux
2 Magic Carpet Squared / Wally 95 / Lindsay Owen Jones
3 Indio / Wally 101 / Andrea Recordati

Full results available at http://www.yachtclubitaliano.it - official race organisers of the Nespresso Cup