Mascalzone räckte hela vägen

Mascalzone Latino seglade starkt även sista dagen och vann VM. Foto: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

1 MASCALZONE LATINO ITA 1 Vincenzo Onorato (Adrian Stead)
2 ALINGHI SUI 81818 Ernesto Bertarelli (Brad Butterworth)
3 BARKING MAD USA 50955 Jim Richardson (Terry Hutchinson)
4 SPUTNIK AUS 5868 Ivan Wheen (Tom King)
5 OPUS ONE GER 5565 Wolfgang Stolz (Kelvin Harrap)
6 NERONE ITA 1972 A S Migliori/M Mezzaroma (Vasco Vascotto)
7 INFINITY USA 4040 John B. Thomson Jr. (Jens Christensen)
8 NANOQ DEN 7 HRH Crown Prince Frederik (Bouwe Bekking)
9 WARPATH USA 69 Stephen Howe (Ian Williams)
10 TWINS FRA 007 Erik Maris (Gildas Philippe)

14 NORWEGIAN STEAM NOR 40 Eivind Astrup (Morten Henriksen)
17 SIRAGUSAWA FIN 13131 Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi (Dave Ullman)
25 MONICK – TUBORG DEN 2007 David Holm (Nicklas Holm)
26 MONKEY CLASS 2 DEN GBR1640 Ole van der Heide (Jesper Feldt)
28 BACKBONE – AUDI DEN 2900 Thomas Kiær (Henrik Jensen)
29 SILVER BULLET DEN 112 Henrik Jansen (Hans Tønder Jensen)
31 WOLFPACK SWE 40 Peter Rudbäck (Björn Hansen)
32 BALOO 110 DEN 7217 Jens Erik Høst (Rasmûs Køster)
35 TEAM BERGEN NOR 9999 Sverre Valeur (Bjørn M. Pedersen)
36 HAPPY HAPPY NOR 11721 Per Arne Nilsen (Gisle Bøe)

Well worth the wait

September 1, 2007

What a difference a few hours made for the final day of racing at the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in Copenhagen, Denmark. After a delayed start of over three hours, PRO Peter Reggio and the Royal Danish Yacht Club race committee had patience and managed to add one final race to the scoreline, with nine races run in total. Winner overall and World Champion Vincenzo Onorato and his team on Mascalzone Latino (ITA) didn’t need much to lock in their lead, finishing with a healthy 35-point lead over 2nd placed Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi (SUI).

Mascalzone becomes the 2nd team to win the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds twice (Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad is the other), though the Italian team is the first to do it back to back. Dockside the team was presented with the Farr 40 World Champion trophy, sprayed with champagne and all crew members treated to a dunking in the chilly water off the Royal Danish Yacht Club marina. Onorato, dripping wet and beaming, said, “I feel wonderful. Mascalzone first, Alinghi second. It’s my dream. Next dream is to do that in the America’s Cup maybe.

He continued, “Winning and defending the Worlds is just a matter of luck maybe. The secret was just to be relaxed. It is just a sail race and you must stay relaxed all the time. When things are happy you must not be so happy. When things are wrong you must not be so unhappy. This is the secret to be successful at the end. I have wonderful people on board. This world championship does not belong to me but to them. Because I have this wonderful crew we won and with this wonderful crew we will win again and I sincerely mean that.”

Today’s race provide a few shake-ups in the top of the scoreboard as Barking Mad’s (USA) 26th place and Alinghi’s 7th place resulted in the American team finishing 3rd overall. Other boats made some impressive gains with a good showing in the last race including John Thomson’s Infinity (USA) which, with a 3rd place today, moved from 15th to 7th overall.

Alinghi sailed a great regatta – an OCS in Race 8 took them out of contention for the overall title — especially given the team hasn’t been in the Farr 40 class for awhile. Owner/helmsman Ernesto Bertarelli is keen to continue in the class and has plans to ship the boat to the US to race in Key West Race Week and the 2008 Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in Miami Beach in April.

Alinghi tactician Brad Butterworth, commented about Mascalzone’s win, “Their scoreline is impressive, they are sailing consistently well and they seem to have a click of speed on most of the other boats. They done a great job of making the boat fast, but then you have to sail it properly and that’s what they do and they come out of the pack when thing’s are not too easy.pretty good team.

For the local Danish fleet, it was a fairly tale ending as HRH Crown Prince Frederik’s Nanoq (DEN) had a great start off the pin end of the line, led at all of the marks and held off a threatening Opus One (GER) downwind for their first win. Today’s score moved them up from 18th to 8th overall and Nanoq was the highest placed Scandanavian boat.

Barking Mad finished in 3rd place overall with 87 points. Owner/helmsman Jim Richardson said about Mascalzone’s win, “Winning in the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship is always a very, very difficult task. And to win it two times in a row is fantastic. Our hats are off to Vincenzo Onorato and his team. Now we’re tied two to two and we’re looking for him in Miami – we’ve already discussed this so he knows we’re going to be battling in the future again, but it is sincerely a great accomplishment.”

The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship celebrated its 10th anniversary in Copenhagen with 36 teams from 13 countries competing. Richardson, president of the Farr 40 Class Association said, “It’s been a wonderful championship. Coming here to Copenhagen has been a bit of a step out of our normal comfort level, but they’ve done a great job. It is a wonderful facility and to be able to support sailing up in the Nordic region has been very, very good. It was wonderful to see the Crown Prince win the last race and to finish in the top ten. It’s got to help up here so a lot of people were very happy with that including people who lost the race.”

Talking about the 2008 Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, Richardson added, “Everyone is looking forward to Miami, I think the weather might be a little warmer and a little sunnier and it should be a lot of fun. More palm trees definitely. And we won’t have to import any – they’ll all be there.”

The 2008 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship will be held in Miami Beach, Florida, USA from April 16 – 19.

The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship joins other prestigious Rolex-sponsored 2007 events including the Rolex Fastnet Race, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Rolex Big Boat Series and the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Nanoq was the winner of the Rolex Race Day. The final awards party was held on Saturday evening where the Mascalzone Latino, overall winner will be officially presented with the Farr 40 World Champion trophy and a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece in Rolesium.