First Italian Melges 24 Volvo Cup Event Plagued By Strong Winds
From Natasa Avlijas of the Italian Melges 24 Class Association - It is true that the Melges is a boat that loves strong winds, but 40 knots is too much even for us. 53 Teams had travelled to Alassio for the first regatta in the 2007 Volvo Cup Series but sadly they were to get very little sailing in. On Saturday the committee had hoped for a decrease in the wind and postponed until 1400 but it was futile and racing had to be abandoned for the day.
On Sunday morning the wind was still strong, perhaps less than on Saturday but still very windy. The committee waited in the hope that it would drop and stabilise and around 1145 the boats began to cast off and leave the dock. At the entrance to the port a beautiful huge wave formed, but the conditions actually did not seem prohibitive. A mile outside the harbour the situation was very varied and unstable. At 1230 the committee positioned the course close in to the shore to gain some shelter and the wind seemed to declare a temporary truce so racing got underway. Unfortunately within only a short while there were steady squalls of over 30 knots, the sea was completely white and the boats were in survival mode. Two races were completed before the boats began racing back towards the crane.
Based on the two completed races the Alina Helly Hansen team of Luca Valerio were declared the winners with Stuart Simpson’s Barbarians team from the UK in second and Philippe Ligot’s Parter & Partners team from France in third. Sadly however, the fact that only two races could be runs means that this regatta is not valid to count towards the overall points classifications on the Volvo Cup circuit.