Giraglia Rolex Cup - Fast Forecast puts Alfa Romeo in the frame for Giraglia record

Fast Forecast puts Alfa Romeo in the frame for Giraglia record

Line honours favourite Alfa Romeo led a fleet of 170 boats out of the Gulf of St Tropez this afternoon as the fleet set out on the 243-mile Giraglia Race. After winning two of the three inshore races of the Giraglia Rolex Cup, Alfa Romeo's skipper Neville Crichton has high hopes of notching up a handicap victory in the offshore race to Genoa.

The other big target is a shot at the course record, a time of 22 hours, 13 minutes, 48 seconds which Crichton and his team set in 2003 with the previous Alfa Romeo, a fixed-keel 90-footer. The current Alfa Romeo is a 100-footer with canting keel and powered winches, an altogether more potent beast. And yet the Giraglia record has eluded the newer boat.

"We should have kept that boat," joked Crichton, referring to the 90-footer which brought him so many race records. "We can't control the weather. Unfortunately wherever we've gone with this boat [the 100-footer] a high pressure zone has followed us around. But we don't need a lot of breeze to break the Giraglia record, and if the forecast is accurate, then we have a good chance tomorrow."

Indeed, this Giraglia Race is shaping up to be a windy one. Normally it's anything but. Professional weather router Mike Broughton is used to advising round-the-world sailors on what the weather's up to. This time he's doing it for himself as tactician aboard the Swan 82 Grey Goose. He anticipates a good, fast race. "I've heard lots of stories about flapping about going nowhere in the bay of Genoa, but it doesn't sound like that's going to happen this year. This could be a quick race. We've had a week of hot temps and feeble sea breezes, but that looks set to change as the light north-easterlies give way to strong south-westerlies. We could see 25 knots by midnight."

Unlike Broughton, Atalanta II skipper Carlo Puri Negri has done the Giraglia Race numerous times. Having found himself drifting out in the Mediterranean on many of those occasions, he is more sceptical about the forecast. "They are predicting a strong wind from the south-west, what we call the Libecco. But we Italians are very superstitious. There's nothing certain about Giraglia. A lot of time you get to within two hours of Genoa, and then you stop. But whatever the weather I am looking forward to it. It's always to see so many boats together, it's very nice to see."

The fleet bobbed around on a windless Gulf of St Tropez for two hours until the race committee was satisfied the wind had settled down enough for a fair start. The big boats came off the line at 2pm in 5 knots of wind, although as they made their way to the first Rolex mark about 1.5 miles from the start, the breeze dropped away again to almost zero. Alfa Romeo ghosted her way to the windward mark in first place. The crew sneaked the Code Zero headsail up to the top of the mast and when it set, the 100-footer accelerated like a greyhound, sailing at almost twice windspeed as the breeze returned. However, no sooner had they hoisted but the increase in pressure with a windshift forced them to lower the sail again as Crichton bore away to maintain control. A lot of effort for not much reward. Still, it was all slickly done and Alfa Romeo sailed serenely away from the fleet, most of whom were still drifting in less wind back in the Gulf.

Second around the Rolex buoy was Igor Simcic's Open 60 Esimit Europa, closely followed by Maxis Atalanta II and Edimetra VI. Gilles Argellies's Brenta 55, Imagine, had just rounded the second turning mark, little more than 2 miles from the start, when the mainsail tumbled down the mast track, most likely due to a broken halyard. It was unclear how long it would take the German team to repair the problem and rehoist the mainsail as they made painfully slow upwind progress under jib. Once out of the Gulf of St Tropez, the breeze increased to 10 knots, with the fleet tacking their way to the Porquerolles Islands before they turn to set spinnakers toward the Giraglia Rock off Corsica.

Last night, more than 2,000 guest were treated to a spectacular dinner, fireworks and entertainment at La Citadelle, the ancient battlements which look over the town of St Tropez. The winners of the inshore racing from the previous three days received their Rolex timepieces. There was a surprise winner of ORC Group A, when Carlo Puri Negri went up to receive his prize for Atalanta II's victory in the division. A number of boats had pointed out an error in the calculation of the length of race 2 on Monday. When the correct distance was factored into the handicap system, Atalanta II was one of the beneficiaries, and the points change elevated her to first overall, displacing Andromeda from the top of the rankings.

This is the 56th edition of the Giraglia Race, a 243-mile marathon starting from St Tropez via the Giraglia Rock at the northern tip of Corsica to the finish in the Italian port of Genoa.

For more information about the Giraglia Rolex Cup including entry lists and results please visit www. yachtclubitaliano.it

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