Rolex Giraglia 2019 - Day 4

Rolex Giraglia 2019 - Day 4 © ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

Saint Tropez unveiled its true identity with a magnificent day for the huge fleet of 297 yachts engaged in the last day of inshore racing; tomorrow is the day of the long race.

The Gulf of Saint Tropez and forgiveness for its laziness of the past two days, when the wind was capricious, and replied to the provocations with excellent weather conditions that allowed the last session of inshore races in the Rolex Giraglia 2019 to be held.

While the One-Design fleets raced on upwind/downwind courses off the beaches of Pampelonne, the rest of the fleet - including the big Maxis - raced on coastal courses of 31 miles the big boats in 19 for the smaller. An unusual but good wind, blowing from East - North East at between eight and 12 kn, and a slight sea running. The weather forecast for the coming days is not easy to decipher, but the present conditions should get stronger which raises hopes for the offshore race.

Rolex Giraglia 2019 - Day 4 - photo © ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

Final results from the racecourses off the beach of Pampelonne: Cuordileone in the ClubSwan 50 (1,3,5), Porron IX among the Swan 45 (1,1,3) and Fantaghirò in the Swan 42 (2,2,2). While Peter Ogden's Maxi Jethou, was first in the 0 Racer Class (1,1).
IRC 0 Cruiser: Lorina - Swan 601 - Jean Pierre Barjon (2,1).
ORC 0: Sailing Poland - Ker 60 - Maciej Marczewski (6,1).

For the groups involved in the coastal races the results were:

IRC A: TP52 - Freccia Rossa - Vadim Yckimenko (5,1)
IRC B: JPK 10.80 - Rossko - Timofey Zhbankov (4,1)
ORC A: Swan 45 - From Now On - Fernando Chain (1,2)
ORC B: First 34.7 - L'Escargot - Costa - Iacobucci (5,1)

Rolex Giraglia 2019 - Day 4 - photo © ROLEX / Studio Borlenghi

With the prizegiving of the French races and the big Rolex party on the Ponche beach that the 2900 participants in the Rolex Giraglia 2019, the French chapter of the Italo-Italienne regatta comes to an end. Now all are waiting for the starting gun at midday tomorrow and confirmation of the weather conditions.

There are a lot of yachts out for the record, first among them the American Maxi Rambler 88, George David's serial winner which has a star-studded cockpit (including, in addition to the Italian Silvio Arrivabene, a poker of Kiwi superstars: Dean Barker, Brad Butterworth, Simon Daubney e Scott Beavis). Will they manage to break the record of 14h56m16s set by Igor Simcic's Maxi Esimit Europa 2 in 2012?

Full results here