Trieste's Barcolana, Record Of Participants

Record of participants at the Barcolana of Trieste. This year the most crowded race in the world organized by the “Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano” will see 2.000 sailing boats at the start line, from 20 to 90 feet. It will take place tomorrow at 10 in the small Gulf of Trieste, in the Adriatic, the northernmost part of the Mediterranean.

Candidate for victory is Alfa Romeo, the boat of New Zealand’s millionaire Neville Crichton, he is extremely happy to be in Trieste to be able to beat so many boats all at once. On board of Alfa Romeo, even Alinghi’s tactician, Brad Butterworth, and the Triestine Lorenzo Bressani (on board as tactician, winner of the 2002 edition). Main opponent of this 90 feet boat is Magic Jena of Mimmo Cilenti and Mitja Kosmina, 80 feet, second in the last edition. The Barcolana of Trieste is at its 35th edition and proves to be a unique event: tomorrow there will be about 250 thousand people who will watch the race on-shore, and about 24 thousand sailors will compete on the sea.

THE SHOW – The berthing of boats in Trieste has been going on all day. The Gulf was already full of sails very early in the morning when boats coming from middle Adriatic area reached Trieste after two days of sailing. It’s the first time that the sailing race has attracted so much public from outside Trieste: the marinas are besieged, the Waterfront is crowded with boats berthed in fifth line, and hotels along the 50km coast from Portoroz (in Slovenia) to Grado are all booked. The festival which started two days ago is still going on and is involving both sailing fans and locals, who poured along the waterfront to watch the Barcolana Sailing Show, the exhibition dedicated to sailing organized by the Trieste Fair in collaboration with PromoSail.

THE COURSE – In the name of tradition, the course consists of a 14.5 miles long trapezoid, with a buoy in Slovenian waters. The start is a 10 o’clock in the morning, with a light southern wind forecast. If such wind will blow, there will be a bowline start.

SAFETY MEASURES – For the Barcolana, the Harbour Office coordinating the sailing race’s safety, in collaboration with all police forces and the ambulance service dialing 118, has issued an order in force tomorrow from 9am to 5pm. Navigation for non-sailing boats is forbidden on all the race area and for half a mile around the course perimeter. This means that navigation is forbidden in the stretch of sea from the Barcola embankment and the Miramare castle. Since there will be about a thousand motorboats with spectators on board, speed must be reduced to avoid - especially with weak wind conditions - creating waves which would disturb competing boats. Race committee notices will be broadcast on channel 9, stay tuned. Channel 16 is active for emergency calls in case of danger.

BRIEFING – All boat owners of the Barcolana met this afternoon at 6pm in Sala Illiria at the Stazione Marittima of Trieste for the race briefing, the technical meeting during which the president of the “Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano” welcomed the two thousand owners and explained the technical details of the event together with the International Jury President Carlo Rolandi, also Fiv honorary President.

POSTER OF THE BARCOLANA - Maria Luisa Sbernadori, student at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera arrived in Trieste too. She is the author of the poster of the race, the image which promoted the regatta around the world. Sailing fan and artist, Maria Luisa Sbernadori did not resist to the temptation of participating: she will be on board of the boat Serenissima equipped by the Health Council Office of the Regione Emilia Romagna as testimonial of the region’s Transplant Centre, racing with the aim to rise public awareness on the issue of organ donation.

FOLLOWING THE REGATTA – All is ready for the live broadcast produced by Rai (airing on Sunday from 9.45 to 12 on Rai Tre). Owing to a cross-border agreement, images will broadcast by Rai will be sent to TV Koper, and the race will thus be watched live for two hours along the whole Istria coast and all over Slovenia: a great result which shows once again the importance of this event for Trieste and the Upper Adriatic area.

FINCANTIERI CUP
The steersman Furio Benussi won the Fincantieri Cup, race upon invitation organized by Promo Sail with the Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano and Yacht Club Adriaco, and with the partnership of Fincantieri, Tamoil and AEG.

The 10 teams racing on the fast and new Solaris 36 OD competed in 8 races over 3 days. There were many unexpected events: one of these was the foot injury of Gabrio Zandonà, 470 world champion, unable to finish the races (Enrico Fonda took the helm). Although the strongest immediately showed off, the result remained uncertain till the end. Yesterday the fight for the title was still open between Benussi, Haidinjak and Casale, only a few points apart. At the end Benussi got the better while Casale, 2nd until yesterday, was caught by Croatia’s Darko Haidinjak, protagonist of a great catching up over the last two days. The overall standings show the three helmsmen with only one point gap from one another.

“This victory is a great satisfaction – said Benussi – many strong teams were competing and the level was balanced; congratulations to these boats, they did a good job in such wind conditions. Personally, I’m not usually at the helm of my team (Sailing Planet, n.d.r.). I’m very proud I’ve won at the helm, even if I clinched this victory in front of Barcola, my sailing club”.
A light 4-6 knots south-east wind was blowing today. Another sailor from Trieste came in 4th, Lorenzo Bodini, former Olympic Tornado athlete; followed by Gianni Scherl, skipper of a Fincantieri boat with Ivan Bertaglia at the helm.