(St Tropez, France)- When St Tropez rolls out the red carpet, with
gardens in full bloom, surrounding hills of the Baie de St Tropez lush
with fragrant flowers, fabulous cafes serving up an orgy of delicious
seaside cuisine, crystal-clear skies dotted with puffy white, cottony
clouds and warm Mediterranean breezes sweeping down the picturesque
coastline, it's awfully hard to beat. And so far the sailors have been
treated to nothing but the best St Tropez has to offer. Spoiled after four days of exceptional weather conditions sailing the inshore racing portion of the event, the teams are now headed out into the challenging 242-nautical mile race from St Tropez, France to Sanremo, Italy via the Giraglia Lighthouse sitting on a rocky outcrop off the northern tip of Corsica. Of course, can't be too bad if you're simply going out to sea, turning left and going from the French Riviera's hot-spot to the Italian Riviera's ho-spot, right? Think again. The forecast is for 20-30 kts and by Thursday blowing up to 40 knots in a classic Mistral-like condition. “It will be very demanding with a lot of wind throughout today,” explained Francesco de Angelis, former J/24 World Champion in Capri, Italy and tactician onboard the 62-foot NATALI–B2. “For tomorrow we are forecasting a certain drop in conditions and some changes of direction bringing lighter winds. It will be a difficult race for everyone although, as always, you can never predict what is going to happen.”
Few
boats will be as experienced and up to the challenge as the J/122 ARTIE
from Malta, owned by Lee Satariano and co-skippered by Christian
Ripard. In their previous competitive offshore outing the combination
were the first Maltese in ten years to win the hugely demanding 606-nm
Rolex Middle Sea Race. Keeping them honest will be Giancarlo Ghislanzoni
on his J/122 CHESTRESS 3. Also, in the hunt will be Olivier Parchet's
J/122 NOISY OYSTER and Edward Gatt Floridia's J/122 OTRA VEZ. With four
J/122s racing, one of them is certain to revel in the conditions. After the first four races in IRC A with 73 boats participating, the top J/122 is Giancarlo's CHESTRESS 3 sitting in 6th place, just 20 points out of third going into a double-counter race. Just behind in 10th is Olivier's NOISY OYSTER and 11th is Lee's ARTIE RTFX.
In IRC B, with 55 boats participating, the top J is Antonio Marcri's J/39 SCINTILLA J sitting in 9th place. The J/109 JAVA BLEUE 3 sailed by La Forest Bardaille sits in 12th place and another J/109 JET LAG sailed by Richard Burton (not the movie actor!) is lying in 20th place. With the forecast for a solid breeze and waves, look for the J/109s in particular to make a quick climb up the ladder and be further up the standings after the Giraglia Race. For more Rolex Giraglia Race sailing information
