The Italians are dominating the leaderboard of the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds after a day’s light-air racing outside Sydney Harbour, in conditions that were more Mediterranean than Pacific Ocean.
Perhaps that explained why in each of the three races, the winner’s gun went to three different Italian boats, all of whom looked very at home in the flat water and light north-easterly breezes. Vincenzo Onorato helmed Mascalzone Latino to victory in Race 1, then Marco Rodolfi and TWT in Race 2, with 2003 World Champion Nerone completing the Italian job in Race 3.
All three teams put in very strong performances throughout the long day, with only local boat Team Shockwave able to match the Italians’ consistency. Even then, Neville Crichton’s Australian-registered boat has an Italian sponsor in Alfa Romeo, and Nerone’s tactician Vasco Vascotto joked that this was good enough for them to be considered an honorary Italian team. He was also impressed by the Aussies’ speed: “They were the fastest boat in those conditions today,” said Vascotto. “They have the speed to win this regatta.”
While the name Nerone frequently appears in conversations about potential winners of the Rolex Farr World Championships – due to take place next week – TWT is mentioned far less often. And yet it was Rodolfi’s team that came out of today with the best scores, 2-1-5 compared with Nerone’s 4-5-1. Vascotto said no one should be shocked to see TWT performing so well. “I am not surprised about TWT because they finished fifth in the Worlds last year. For me, they are certainly one of the ten boats that could win the Worlds this year. Their team is young in years, but old in experience.”
Marco Rodolfi’s young team has made rapid progress in this toughest of one-design fleets. They made their first appearance two years ago at the Worlds in Porto Cervo where they finished 23rd. A year later they had improved to a 5th in San Francisco, so it is not hard to see why they are rated as potential winners in Sydney. The most experienced man on board is tactician Tiziano Nava, who celebrated his 47th birthday yesterday.
Nava brings a wealth of knowledge to the team, gleaned from his time as tactician on the 1983 America’s Cup challenger Azzurra and more recently as the winning tactician in the 2002 Melges 24 Worlds. “We have learned a lot about the Farr 40 over the past two years – the sails, the trimming, the tactics,” he said. “We are very happy with today. We wanted to start near the pin end in each race because we liked the wind on the left. We made good starts in the first two races, and not so good in the last race, but luckily we had good speed.”
Some other highly-fancied boats struggled to get anywhere close to TWT’s consistency today. Reigning World Champion Barking Mad started the regatta with a creditable 3rd, but followed it with a lacklustre 17th. Still, considering Jim Richardson had been second to last in the 28-boat fleet at the leeward gate, 17th represented a good recovery for the American team. With a 9th in Race 3, Barking Mad’s scores still give her 5th overall in these early stages of the nine-race series.
Whether or not Richard Perini and Evolution can bounce back to win the Pre-Worlds after such a poor first day is far less certain. Scores of 26-14-10 sees this top-rated Aussie boat in 19th place overall, but at least they can console themselves that this is only the appetizer to the main course, the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, which begins next Tuesday, 1 March.
Vascotto knows it is far too early to count Evolution out of the equation. “Perini didn’t do a good job today but for sure he will come back tomorrow.” The fleet is scheduled to race three back-to-back races tomorrow, with more light winds forecast.
For more information about the the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds and the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, including daily racing reports, results and high-resolution images, go to www.regattanews.com or www.farr40.org
