Alberto Ferrari wins the Volvo Cup D-ONE regatta in Bracciano

by Pierre Orhanidis on 23 May 2011
Just one single race was completed due to the unfavorable weather conditions at Sailing Team in Bracciano, Italy. A total of 26 sailors raced, including three women with the smaller 9.5 rig. The next leg of the Volvo Cup D-One will be in Cattolica in June 11-12, followed by the most anticipated event, the Gold Cup in Riva del Garda at the end of July.

The second leg of the Volvo Cup D-One, organized by Sailing Team Bracciano, ended with just one valid race that took place on Saturday with a westerly wind of 10 knots. On Sunday, the breeze did not come to the lake on the outskirts of Rome and at around 4:30pm the last slim hopes of having a race faded away under the storm. This event, with only a single valid race, will therefore not count towards the 2011 Volvo Cup. What remains valid however is the important victory by local skipper Alberto Ferrari, ahead of Argentina’s Agustin Zabalua, reigning Gold Cup D-One champion, and Alessandro Novi from Genoa.

The race within the race of the five yachts equipped with the smaller 9.5 rigs was particularly hard fought and fun thanks to the balance between light weights, wings. Among them there were three brave and beautiful girls, with Nathalie Testa finishing ahead of Francesca Venturi and Valentina Cinque. In the Masters division victory went to Giovanni Tricarico, followed by Andrea Magni and Guido Falciola. The Immersion watch for the fastest skipper to the first windward mark (Immersion Speed ??Contest) went to the Roman Stefano Caruso.

What were not absent from the event was the fun, thanks to the D-One spirit, and the opportunity for the skippers to improve their knowledge with this innovative dinghy with mainsail and spinnaker, thanks to Luca Devoti and Agustin Zabalua, who imparted valuable advice to competitors, especially for the development of the new North mainsails.

This is how the winner of the race, Alberto Ferrari, described it: 'Zabalua and I had an amazing duel and I eventually managed to stay ahead. Imagine, I hit the starting line at the last possible second… I was also lucky to find myself immediately on the right side. Now, together with the large D-One fleet in Rome, we will train hard for the Gold Cup in Riva del Garda, where conditions are very demanding but definitely very exciting.'

The Volvo Cup D-One, after the onset of Alassio and Bracciano, will proceed to Cattolica (10-12 June), Riva del Garda (27-29 July), Marina di Scarlino in conjunction with the Italian National Championship (16-18 September) and the Barcolina of Trieste (1-2 October).