To the Victors, the Spoils
Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy

Posted Sunday, September 9, 2007

 
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September 8, 2007

The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2007 ended in triumph for some and disappointment for
others as the final day played out and racing came to a conclusion. As is so often
the way on the final day, the individual race winners today were overshadowed by the
overall regatta winners. No surprise really since only one boat in each of the four
divisions is crowned champion, walking away with a Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup trophy and a
Rolex Yacht-master timepiece. This year the overall winners were Carlo Puri Negri &
Atalanta II (ITA) in Mini Maxi, Jean Charles Decaux & J One (MON) in Wally, Ranger
(CAY) in Cruising and, after a extraordinary racing performance today, Hasso
Plattner and Morning Glory (GER) in the grand prix Racing Division.

The day started uneventfully. A light northwesterly of 6-7 knots allowed the Yacht
Club Costa Smeralda Race Committee to set a 30 nautical mile course that took the
yachts to a windward mark, before they entered the channel between Sardinia and the
Maddalena islands at the southern end of Caprera. A long beat up the channel led to
the turning mark at Barettinelli di Fouri, where the yachts turned right and reached
back along the outside of the islands to Golfo Pevero and the finish off Porto
Cervo. By the end, it turned out more than eventful for some.

Race course winners were: Alfa Romeo in Racing, where the Neville Crichton's New
Zealand supermaxi put in another blistering performance, haring around the track in
2 hours 34 minutes, finishing some twenty minutes ahead of George David's Rambler
(USA) - both corrected out into the same positions. In the Wally Division, Y3K won
on the water, whilst Jean Charles Decaux' crew put in another exceptional
performance on J One to win on handicap. Mini Maxi was won by All Smoke (GBR) and
Cruising saw Ranger end up in front.

The longer story of the day is not without controversy - depending upon your
viewpoint. The Racing Division led the fleet away at 1145. Alfa Romeo reached the
windward mark first and headed off into the channel. Surprisingly, she was followed
by Rambler, then Titan XII and then Favonius. At first it looked as though Morning
Glory had encountered a problem. First she headed away from the mark. Then she
executed a 360 turn as if to rectify a penalty, save there was no other yacht in
proximity. Then just as she looked to be back up to speed and heading in the right
direction, her headsail sheet was let off and she sailed lazily towards the channel
in the wake of the remainder of the Racing Division. That is, all except Loki, with
whom Glory was tied in the standings.

It was then only too apparent what the German supermaxi intended to do, as Morgan
Larson, the tactician, explained, "we had two strategies today based upon the
windspeed. We knew if the wind was in the upper range that we would have a great
chance to beat the Loki in the race and if it was lighter they had a good chance to
beat us. We did some work last night with the results and realized that their
throwout was worse than ours so we just had to make sure that they had a bad race."
And that they did, stalking their opponent at the windward mark with a ruthlessness
that suggested plainly that the Goliath in this contest was not to be denied by the
David.

Larson described how they reached the decision to quash the aspirations of the
Australian crew, "halfway up to the first mark we decided it was light wind and
those guys are so fast in the light and were doing such a great job, so we took the
opportunity to slow them up." And that they did too. Over the ensuing 4 hours (Alfa
took 2 hours 30 minutes to complete the course), the two yachts were no more than a
hair's breadth apart with the larger boat in complete control. To their credit,
Stephen Ainsworth's crew did not give up. A conservative estimate would be that Loki
sailed an extra 10 miles trying to find a chink in the Teutonic armour, which she
almost did at the death when the wind fell so light that Loki had more speed than
Glory. This display of sportsmanship in the face of a wholly one-sided match race
earned the Aussies a standing ovation from the crew of Favonius as they arrived back
into the dock.

For Hasso Plattner the overall victory is all the more sweet since 2007 marks the
tenth anniversary of his last win at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup.

Another yacht celebrating an anniversary with overall victory at the Maxi Yacht
Rolex Cup is J One. Jean Charles Decaux was understandably delighted, "it's great!
It was the result of very good teamwork and I am pretty happy for the boat, since it
is its tenth anniversary this year. It was great fun and we've been working hard for
that so we are very pleased. It was great competition with the other 80s on the
water. It was very tight because we have had some very tough competitors this year.
We have had some very good days especially with the wind. This year has been perfect
with flat water. It continues to be one of the best spots in the world to sail. For
J One that is the great news!"

Decaux laid the secret to success firmly at the door of the crew, "we have a very
good crew. We have been together for three years in a row. We have been building our
teamwork together and it is very, very nice to win here. I am pleased that the whole
crew has been rewarded for their job."

In the Mini Maxis, the owner of Atalanta II - Carlo Puri Negri - was not going to
allow something like an overall victory cloud his judgment about today's
performance, which he considered to be poor, "we knew we had won already yesterday
with a first place. Today we were less happy the way we sailed compared to the
previous day races. It was a very shifty day, and we probably finished third place
so we basically consider it as our throw-out." But he recognized that Atalanta II
had had a fine series scoring 2,1,2,1 after dropping today's 3rd, "it was great
racing with a lot of fun, maybe with less steady conditions than in the previous
editions, but this is an amazing place, and we are very much happy. We won thanks to
an excellent crew. We now look ahead for the next edition to come."

In the Cruising Division Ranger won not only the battle of the J-Class finishing
ahead of Velsheda, but she won today's race and the division as a whole, posting 4
bullets and dropping a 3rd from her scoreline to finish on 4 points; 4 ahead of
Velsheda and 6 ahead of Arne Glimcher's Ghost. For John Williams the owner of Ranger
it was a dream come true. Until now he and the boat had won a number of match races,
but never an event overall, "this is the first time we've walked away with the big
prize, which feels good. We launched the boat four years ago and it has taken us a
long time to tweak it up as you know. This boat was originally a 1936 design and
raced in the America's Cup in 1937. We took that design and recreated it, and we
were in virgin territory. Nobody had built a J boat in 70 years so it took a little
while to get is where it was actually working properly so we're pleased." Why had he
taken on such a project? "Well, I love the water, I love sailing, I love to pu!
t together a team that worked as perfectly as ours did and the truth is that this
is the epitome of teamwork. We had some 35 guys and ladies out there on the boat
working very, very hard endlessly to make sure we were successful," explained
Williams. As for the key to the win, "there's an old saying 'never say never'.
Whenever we were behind Erle (Williams) and the rest of the team just stayed at
it." And that is probably true of all the winners at this year's event.

The 18th edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup featured 38 yachts from 11 countries
including: Australia, Cayman Islands, France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands,
New Zealand, San Marino, UK and U.S.A.

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

For more information about the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2007 including entry lists and
results please visit www.yccsmaxi.com.

CURRENT PROVISIONAL STANDINGS

Place Boat Name Owner Nation, R1-R2-R3-R4-R5-Points

Racing

1. MORNING GLORY Hasso Plattner GER, 1-3-1-4-(6)-9.0

2. LOKI Stephen Ainsworth AUS, 2-1-4-2-(5)-9.0

3. TITAN XII Tom & Dotti Hill USA, (4)-2-3-3-3-11.0

Cruising

1. RANGER RSV Ltd USA, 1-(3)-1-1-1-4.0

2. VELSHEDA Turbat Inv. Ltd GBR, 2-2-2-2-(3)-8.0

3. GHOST Arne Glimcher USA, (11)-1-4-3-2-10.0

Mini Maxi

1. ATALANTA II Carlo Puri Negri ITA, 2-1-2-1-(3)-6.0

2. ALL SMOKE Gunter Herz GBR, 3-(5)-5-2-1-11.0

3. OPS 5 Massimo Violati ITA, 1-6-1-6 -(7)-14.0

Wally

1. J ONE Jean Charles Decaux GBR, 1-(2)-2-2-1-6.0

2. INDIO Andrea Recordati ITA, 2-(4)-1-1-4-8.0

3. DARK SHADOW Antexis Ltd MON, 5-1-(7)-3-5 -14.0