Giraglia Rolex Cup - The Giraglia Race is on

St Tropez, France - Yesterday saw the completion of inshore racing at the Giraglia Rolex Cup in St Tropez (results below), and today a fleet of 170 yachts set out from the Gulf on the 243-mile Giraglia Race, after waiting three hours for the wind to pick up enough to allow a fair start. The course runs from St Tropez, France to Genoa, Italy via Giraglia Rock on Corsica.

Neville Crichton, skipper of Alpha Romeo, is currently looking to break his own record for the course. 22 hrs, 13 min, 48 sec is the time his team set in 2003, and with 10 more feet, a canting keel and power winches, he hopes to be a good bit faster on the team's new boat. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case so far.

“We should have kept that boat,” quipped Crichton, referring to the 90' Alpha Romeo the new boat replaced. “We can’t control the weather. Unfortunately wherever we’ve gone with this boat [the 100-footer] a high pressure zone has followed us around. But we don’t need a lot of breeze to break the Giraglia record, and if the forecast is accurate, then we have a good chance tomorrow.”

According to pro weather router Mike Broughton, tactician aboard the Grey Goose, the forecast is for up to 25 knots of South-westerlies building around midnight. With the light winds the racing has seen so far (and in fact typical of the offshore Giraglia Race in general), this may make for some surprising finishes. Some, however, aren't convinced the breeze is coming.

“They are predicting a strong wind from the south-west, what we call the Libecco. But we Italians are very superstitious," said Atalanta II skipper Carlo Puri Negri. "There’s nothing certain about Giraglia. A lot of time you get to within two hours of Genoa, and then you stop.”

Giraglia Rolex Cup Provisional Results – Overall after completion of inshore series

IMS Class 0-2 (top three)
1. Andromeda – Antonio Ronconi – Comet 51S – 17 points
2. Atalanta II – Carlo Puri Negri – Farr 70 – 20 points
3. Edimetra VI – Ernesto Gismondi – Wally 65 – 21 points

IRC Class 0-2 (top three)
1. Kora 4 – Paolo Scerni – Swan 42 – 15 points
2. Fissa – Ettore Yachting – A 40 RC – 23 points
3. Nikimar – Christophe Picard – Farr 52 – 26 points

IMS Class 3-4 (top three)
1. Manida – Alberto Patrone/Francesco Damonte – Proto – 7 points
2. Calima – Javier Pujol – Prototipo – 9 points
3. Almogaver – Antoine Illies – X-332 –11 points

IRC Class 3-4 (top three)
1. Tchin-Tchin – Jean Claude Bertrand – A-35 – 3 points
2. Rakam – Jean-Louis Boue – First 36.7 – 13 points
3. Galanga – Philippe de Saignes – A-109 – 13 points

Final Results from 9 races – GP42 Quebramar Cup

GP42 class (top three)
1. Airis, Roberto Monti – 28 points
2. Desafio, Gonçalo Esteves – 28 points
3. Canarias Puerto Calero, Jose Calero – 29 points

READ MORE ABOUT THE Giraglia Rolex Cup

- BH / Photos Carlo Borlenghi