Day 3 of the 20th edition of the big boat classic regatta organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda was an easier day for some, but hard day for others. The sea state had eased considerably as had the wind, a more reasonable 12-15 knots. A splendid day to be sent on a 36 nautical mile quest up the outside of the archipelago to Barrettinelli, a downwind dive past the islands of Santa Maria and Budelli before an anticlockwise rounding of Spargi to pop back outside at Punta Marginetto at the top of Maddalena and a reach back to the finish off Porto Cervo. The Mini Maxi Racing Class were set a series of shorter windward-leeward course for the day.
The day's race winners on the distance course were Claus Peter Offen's Y3K (Wally), Ronald de Waal's Velsheda (Cruising/Spirit of Tradition), Michael Cotter's Whisper (Mini Maxi Racing/Cruising), Filippo Faruffini's Roma (Racing/Cruising) and Karl Kwok's Beau Geste (HKG) in the combined Racing & Racing/Cruising. On the short course, Udo Schütz's Container (GER) threw off her troubles of yesterday and took a morale-boosting victory in the first race, beating Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo by five seconds on corrected time. Alfa, in turn, pushed Ràn (GBR) into third by just one second and that was achieved on the last gybe of the last leg. In the second race, Alfa took the win by over a minute on corrected time from Ràn. Of the Swan fleet, Danilo Salsi’s new Swan 90, DSK Pioneer Investments, had the most successful day, registering a 2nd place result in the Maxi Racer Cruiser Class. Andrea Casale, onboard DSK, commented, “It was a fantastic day with a nice breeze, a little softer and lighter than the previous days which was good as it was easier for the crew. Our division had a really close start with each of us pushing the other so we were very close to the start line at the gun. We then had a long upwind leg to the top mark where we hoisted and had some nice downwind gybing through the islands. It was fun from start to finish, especially as we were so close with Roma – often overlapped, calling for water around rocks on the shoreline. It is always fun to have boats performing so closely. We finished the race just overlapped off Pevero – with both boats happy, and DSK just ahead!
With two more days of racing left the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is far from over and the competitors will be making the most of tomorrow's rest day to recuperate. The final races have plenty of scope for the A-listers to become D-listers. Those hoping to win the Rolex Chronometers and have their names inscribed on the Cups still have some work to do.
Racing continues on Friday, 11 September with the first signal scheduled for 11.30 CEST.
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