Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship Preview

ONORATO IN RACE AGAINST TIME TO BEAT THE SPANISH

Vincenzo Onorato has his work cut out defending the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship that he won last year. The Italian shipping tycoon dominated the cruiser/racer division at Newport, Rhode Island, against a predominantly American fleet.

Now he is back to defend his title in Valencia with a brand new 52-footer called Mascalzone Latino. Vincenzo Onorato has proved himself a competent owner/driver at the highest level, winning the Mumm 30 World Championship in the past year. What's more, he has his loyal lieutenants from his recently launched America's Cup campaign to support him on tactics. Vasco Vascotto was with Onorato at the Newport victory last year, while long-time Olympic sailor Paolo Cian is a more recent recruit to the Mascalzone Latino team. But Onorato's greatest enemy is time, having only launched his Farr-designed racer on Sunday. The technical electronics have only just been fitted.

Perhaps the strongest bet for success in the big boat division this week is Cam, the 50-footer sailed and managed by the 1996 Tornado Olympic Champion Fernando Leon. Having just won the Trofeo de S.M. la Reina, which took place on the same waters over the past week, Leon was taking a day off while the Mascalzone team put in a full day of practice on the water. "We are feeling confident," said Leon. "The team is working well and the boat is going fast." Cam is better known by her previous name of Esmeralda, which performed very well on the US circuit last year with America's Cup helmsman Ken Read in charge.

The 50-foot bracket is arguably the most competitive division entered for the Rolex IMS Worlds in Spain. The King of Spain's boat, Bribon, has four-time Olympic medallist Torben Grael calling tactics, the same position he occupies on the Italian Prada America's Cup Challenge.

Vicente Tirado's two 50-footers, Castellon Costa Azahar and the brand new Caixa Galicia, are stacked with America's Cup and Olympic talent, including reining 49er World Champion Santiago Lopez Vasquez who is steering the Castellon boat, formerly known as Innovision, (Winner of the big boats in the Rolex IMS Offshore Worlds in 1999).

Pasquale Landolfi has flown in an international crew to get the best out of Brava Q8, his highly successful 50-footer which at three years old may now struggle against the newer IMS designs. Top Whitbread and America's Cup navigator, New Zealander Andrew Cape, should earn his money on the long offshore race in the middle of the week, while Briton Eddie Warden-Owen should bring his America's Cup and Maxi racing experience to bear in his role as tactician.

It is a sign of just how quickly things move on in the world of IMS racing that Luc Gellusseau feels his 50-footer Krazy-K-Yote Two is getting too long in the tooth for any real chance of success this week. Just two years ago her radical design was rejected from the Admiral's Cup and she was unable to compete for the French team. "We had a design that cheated the IMS rule and she was extremely fast under her rating," said Gellusseau, who is taking some time out from running the French challenge for the next America's Cup. Now, however, he fears that Krazy's time has been and gone, and he has virtually counted himself out of a podium position at the end of this week. "I would be happy if we can get a top five placing, because we will not beat the new Spanish boats here."

In Class B, the brand new 46-footer owned by Jesus Fuster called Telepizza-Pepsi has to rank as one of the favourites, having just won her class in the Trofeo de S.M. la Reina last week. Whilst the crew is amateur, Fuster has employed one of Spain's most successful professionals to steer, the double Olympic champion Luis Doreste. Doreste said he was more than happy to race the professional teams with his amateur crew this week. "Our boat is very fast and we sailed well together in the Trofeo," he said.

The rest of the fleet is peppered with big names from the racing world, with former Whitbread round-the-world expert Gordon Maguire making a rare appearance on the European circuit aboard Wolfgang Schaefer's Struntje Light, from Germany.

Admiral's Cup winner Hans Otto Schumann is campaigning his boat Rubin XV, and former 18-foot skiff world champion from Britain, Tim Robinson, is trying his hand at big boat helming on Pieter Heyn's 40-footer Nautica.

The regatta kicks off on Tuesday 3rd July with two inshore races and concludes on Sunday 8th July. With 73 boats entered, the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship 2001 is shaping up to be one of the hardest fought events of the season.