"It's sailing Jim, but not as we know it..."

Yesterday I spoke to Chris Draper, who has just won the 49er Gold medal at the Olympic Test Regatta in Qingdao. Chris was still out in China having done a bit of coaching for the British 470 team at the World Championships 50 miles up the road from Qingdao. Apparently the wind was great! The Olympics should have been there maybe, but no use crying over spilt milk. The Games is in Qingdao and a big part of who wins medals in 2008 is who accepts it for what it is. When tidal strength often exceeds wind strength, we can't exactly look forward to the most thrilling of TV spectacles, but the results from the recent Test Regatta at least show that even in these wacky conditions the cream still rises to the top. I was interviewing Chris for an article I've just written for the forthcoming issue of Seahorse Magazine. The one thing I didn't mention from our conversation was Chris's view of China after spending a month living there, with his nostrils full of burnt-coal grime and pollution. Chris's analysis of the place: "It's minging!"

Mascalzone Latino breezes to a long cherished victory

Vincenzo Onorato has finally won the Rolex Farr 40 World Championships, a title that has consistently eluded him since he first took part in 1999. The first three days of the regatta were light wind affairs, but with the sea breeze blowing up to 18 knots today, Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino team turned in a masterful performance.

In the first race, Eivind Astrup sailed Norwegian Steam to his second win of the week, although the greater threat to Onorato’s overnight lead was Opus One, with German owner Wolfgang Stolz snatching a 3^rd compared with Mascalzone’s 6^th. In the next race it was Evolution’s turn to take the lead, with Richard Perini finally showing some of the form that earned him the world title in Sydney last year. However, another regatta underperformer - in the form of Steve Howe’s Warpath - stole the lead to win the race from Evolution, although of greater interest to the front runners was Mascalzone Latino incurring a 720-degree penalty turn at the first windward mark.

That could have been Onorato’s championship lost right there, but the determined Neapolitan grabbed back 12 places on the next downwind leg and recovered to 13^th by the end of the race. Meanwhile Opus One had sailed another solid race and Stolz’s 7^th place moved him to within three points of Mascalzone Latino.

Onorato refused to be ruffled by the 720 penalty. He said the key to winning this week was to “be cool, be concentrated”. He praised tactician Russell Coutts for keeping the crew calm and focussed: “Even if things went wrong, I was not upset. Before the last race, Russell told me, ‘This is the time to win race.’ I said, ‘Can we?’ And he said, ‘Of course!’ And we won the race.”

Indeed they did, with Mascalzone Latino launching off the middle of the start line in clear air, leading around the windward mark and dominating the final race from start to finish. Going into that race, Barking Mad was still in contention despite a lacklustre 13,9 from the earlier heats. At the windward mark Jim Richardson rounded second behind Onorato, and while the local Newport sailor knew that his chance of victory was slipping away, he was at least looking good for second overall.

Things changed dramatically down the final run to the finish. The wind softened and shifted right at the same time. The boats that gybed early profited from the sudden change in conditions, while Barking Mad was left stranded on one side. The American team dropped from 2^nd to 12^th in one leg. Meanwhile Australian boat Ichi Ban slipped down the right side of the run to finish 6^th and claim the runner-up spot in the championship. “That final leg was indicative of our whole regatta,” said Barking Mad tactician Terry Hutchinson. “Obviously there was a shift there and I missed it. We sailed into a light spot, and the fleet sailed by. We didn’t quite have it today, didn’t quite have it the whole regatta. We battled the entire week. But it just makes you appreciate how hard winning is.” Barking Mad finished third overall.

Another boat that got left stranded on the final run was Opus One, who just missed out on the podium. Wolfgang Stolz commented: “The last run was a bitter disappointment, dropping 15 places, running out of breeze. But we’re very pleased to have got a top 10 result this week.” The German crew finished fourth overall.

Ichi Ban’s owner Matt Allen was delighted to have grabbed second overall. “We’re ecstatic, it’s a great result. Vincenzo, Russell and the guys did a great job and never really opened the door for anyone. They sailed a great regatta and they deserved to win.”

Vincenzo Onorato has won many championships before, but for him this victory is the sweetest of all. “I have won four world championships as a helmsman, in IMS racing and in the Mumm 30, but this is the best. Sometimes I have won when I didn’t deserve it, but this time we deserved to win. The Farr 40 is the best offshore boat in the world, she’s beautiful, she’s like a nice blonde. This is the best time of my life.”

Mascalzone clings on to the lead

It wasn’t even as though they had a spectacular day, but Vincenzo Onorato’s team on Mascalzone Latino found themselves having increased their lead in the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship. Mainsheet trimmer Adrian Stead commented: “The first race was very good, scoring a third. The second and third races we were mid-line and going right - with the left paying - so they were recovery races. Last race we did a pretty awesome recovery on the first beat to come back from 27^th to 11^th, although we didn’t convert it, coming in 15^th. There were plenty of snakes and ladders out there, and we did OK, probably fourth best boat of the day, and we extended on Barking Mad.”

Jim Richardson’s local team clung on to second overall with scores of 7,24,6. While Mascalzone and Barking Mad retained their places on the leaderboard from the night before, behind them all sorts of place changing was going on. Biggest beneficiary from today’s three light-wind races on Rhode Island Sound was Cannonball, with Dario Ferrari posting an incredible set of scores – 5,5,3 – to leap 11 places up the rankings to fourth overall. The Italian owner was bubbling over with excitement. “I have just decided to give up sailing, because after today I will never repeat anything like that. This proved what a fantastic class the Farr 40 is. It shows that anyone can win in this fleet."

For the rest of my story, go to the official Rolex sailing website

Mascalzone Latino moves to the top

Light and shifting winds brought massive changes to the leaderboard on day two of the Rolex Farr 40 World Championships. Mascalzone Latino put together the best scores for the day, coming 4^th in the next. That was enough to put Vincenzo Onorato’s team at the top of the scoreboard, 4 points ahead of a similarly consistent Barking Mad. Flash Gordon suffered a difficult day after making bad starts off the line, although Helmut Jahn’s two victories the previous day are sufficient to keep him in third overall.

Russell Coutts, the tactician on board Mascalzone Latino, explained the thin line between success and failure in this hard-fought 38-boat fleet. “Today we had some breaks, some good starts, and if you can get off the line cleanly it puts you in the top 15, and from there it’s a battle. We didn’t make any big mistakes, whereas yesterday I didn’t manage that second race very well. I allowed myself to get pinned out to the left and we rounded fourth last. In a fleet this size you just can’t afford to get pinned out to the wrong side.”

For more on this story, click on the official Rolex website

Flash Gordon on fire at Rolex Farr 40 Worlds

Helmut Jahn has been racing Farr 40s for eight years but he has never shown the sort of form that he is displaying this week in Newport, Rhode Island. It seems that the past year and a half he's got serious about campaigning this toughest of keelboat classes, signing up up-and-coming sailor Mike Ivey as tactician and Ed Adams as coach.

Here's an excerpt from a piece I wrote for the event:

Flash Gordon was firing on all cylinders today while other leading lights stalled out during a tricky opening day at the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in Newport, Rhode Island. The formula for Flash Gordon’s success includes world-renowned architect Helmut Jahn (Chicago, Ill.) steering his Flash Gordon upwind, then handing over to his son Evan downwind. An unorthodox approach, but one that did them no harm in the light south-westerly breeze that blew across Rhode Island Sound.

In the first race of the day, Flash Gordon got a nice start off the pin end of the line, in good company with leading contenders such as 2004 World Champion and winner of last week’s Pre-Worlds, Jim Richardson (Newport, R.I./Boston, Mass.) on Barking Mad. However, where Barking Mad tacked off to protect the middle of the course, Flash Gordon kept on going, rounding the first mark narrowly ahead of Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino (Portoferrio, Italy). Barking Mad dropped to around 10th when tactician Terry Hutchinson’s conservative strategy failed to pay off.

To read more, listen to some audio interviews and see Daniel Forster's great photos, click on this link: http://www.regattanews.com/event.asp?id=138