(Monte Carlo, Monaco)- Snow on the peaks and boats in the breeze under a
quasi spring sunshine ... the charm of the Primo Cup - Trophée Credit
Suisse, initiated 31 years ago by HSH Prince Albert II, on his arrival
to the Presidency of YCM. Over the weekend of February 6th to 8th, the
Yacht Club de Monaco rolled out the red carpet for the enormous J/70
fleet participating in the XXXI Primo Cup- Trophee Credit Suisse. The
spectacular yacht club allows sailors to mix, on land and at sea, with
the great names of world sailing and the America's Cup, like this year's
Italian Francesco de Angelis (skipper of Luna Rossa Italian challenge
for the America's Cup) and famous French sailor Marc Pajot- both sailing
J70’s!
Since
last year, the J/70 fleet tripled in size to thirty-three boats this
year, by far the largest one-design fleet seen in Monaco’s waters in
years. As the largest fleet in this year’s Primo Cup, the J/70 teams
from across Europe represented seven countries (Monaco, France, Italy,
Germany, Great Britain, Spain & Russia).With warm days under the mellow Mediterranean sun and a welcoming atmosphere, the Northern European sailors in particular were enthusiastic to go sailing in such benign, friendly conditions.
Day
one saw very shifty conditions with winds ranging from 0 to 25 knots
and never in the direction forecasted. After a difficult start, the
fleet split apart and the boats experienced very unstable winds,
randomizing the results table. A massive swell and strong gusts
prevented the Race Committee’s PRO- Thierry Leret- from putting up the
start signal and everyone went back home to the spectacular new YCM club
house to share a few “war stories” and some delicious food and
refreshments. On the final day, the fleet had a chance to sail in classic, sunny, moderate breezes in Hercules Bay off Monte Carlo. The breeze, the dramatic backdrop of the historical waterfront and the snowy peaks in the background made for a near picture-perfect day. Overcoming their first race 14th, German skipper Claus Lehman and his BLANKER HANS team (Marc-Daniel Maehlmann, Dennis Ruge and Valentin Zeller) fired off a 3-3-2 scoreline to narrowly win by one point over the Italian team UJI UJI skippered by Alesio Marinelli. The UJI UJI team posted the most consistent scoreline for the regatta with a 2-6-1-6 for 9 pts net.
After
the first two races, Frenchman Ludovic Senechal and his LULU NANTAISE
team led the regatta with a 1-2 tally, but fell off the pace tactically
with a 6-9 in the last two races to hang on to third with 9 pts net,
too, losing the tie-breaker. Rounding out the top five were two of the host YC Monaco teams, in fourth was the team led by skipper Pierrik Devic (with crew Claude & Jean Rodelato and Blandine Medicin) and in fifth was the YCM J/70 Fleet Captain, Jacopo Carrain’s CARPE DIEM (with crew Enrico Fonda, Alessandro Siviero and Filippo La Mantia).
Of note, finishing a respectable sixth in their first major J/70 outing was local Monegasque skipper Ian Isley on ST ANDREW. Italian superstar Francesco De Angelis crewed for the Russian team B2 skippered by Michele Galli in 17th place and fellow French rock-star Marc Pajot crewed for Thomas Mellano on LE HAVRE NAUTIC (Pajot had his daughters Zoe Pajot and Eve Pajot-Bremond sailing with them- their finish clearly didn’t represent their amazing talent; they demonstrated the ability to sail in the top ten when not getting in trouble on the course!). Thanks for contribution from Sven Jürgensen. Sailing photo credits- YC Monaco/ Carlo Borlenghi. For more J/70 Primo Cup sailing information
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