Rolex
IMS World Championships - Light Winds Prevail
In Offshore Race At IMS Worlds In Capri
Capri,
ITA
American Entry Talisman and the
Italian X-Prozac Leading at Day's End
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Photo
© Carlo Borlenghi/ROLEX
|
CAPRI
(May 18, 2004) - The Rolex IMS World Championship,
organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, officially
got under way today in the Bay of Naples with
the start of the offshore race. Day One's races
on Monday were called off by the Race Committee
due to a lack of wind. Today, however, with a
north-easterly breeze (or, in Italian, "grecale"),
the race started on schedule in 8-9 knots of wind,
with the start divided into two groups. Today's
"long" race course was trimmed to around
80 nautical miles due to an anticipated drop in
wind velocity.
The
66 entries had an 18-mile beat to a buoy off the
city of Naples, then a 16-mile leg to the island
of Procida and around, 16 miles back to a mark
off Marina Grande (Capri), back up to Procida
and then the return to the finish off Capri.
As
expected, the wind dropped shortly after the start,
and the boats were finding it slow going. The
two leading boats, the sole American entryTalisman,
and the Italian boat X-Prozac, the largest boats
in the fleet at 58 feet and 56 feet respectively,
rounded the mark off Capri (for the first time)
in the early evening. The race leaders are expected
to finish before midnight with the rest of the
fleet arriving back in Capri through tomorrow
morning, Wednesday, May 19.
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Photo
© Carlo Borlenghi/ROLEX
|
A
total of ten nations are being represented at
this year's World Championship. Brand-new designs
from Botin & Carkeek, respected interpreters
of the IMS rule, are also adding to the excitement.
Marco Birch's Talisman with Terry Hutchinson at
the helm, Memo Memulini flying the Uruguayan flag,
X-Prozac, Meridiana Italtel with Vasco Vascotto,
and Raiffeisen CM with Lorenzo Bressani at the
wheel, are challenging the predominance of Bruce
Farr designs. Many of these new boats arrived
in Capri, the first event of the IMS season, just
a few weeks after their launch.
Results
and Photos at www.regattanews.com
