(Monte Carlo, Monaco)- Over the weekend of February 9th to 11th, some 300 hundred sailors descended upon the famous Principality of Monaco for the Primo Cup- Trophée Credit Suisse, organized in collaboration with SLAM.
With 12 nations represented on 80 boats, there was no downtime for the sailors on Hercules Bay off Monaco. In fact, the fleets were blessed with some of the best sailing conditions the regatta has seen in years, with enough sun, wind, and warm weather to complete eight races for the J/70 class!
For Yacht Club de Monaco General Secretary Bernard d’Alessandro, there was great satisfaction, “it’s amazing to see how this regatta has not aged; that it continues to attract a new generation of sailors, as evidenced by the five Corinthian teams among the top 10 in the J/70 class fleet of 41 entrants!”
This 34th edition delighted competitors, including the 2008 Laser Olympic champion Paul Goodison. He commented, “it’s great to be able to come here in the middle of winter and enjoy back-to-back races in ideal conditions against a high-level field in the J/70 fleet.”
In this flagship class of the Yacht Club de Monaco, which boasts the biggest concentration of J/70s in the Mediterranean with 20 boats, the competition doubled its efforts to overtake last year’s Primo Cup winner- the Brazilians on MANDACHUVA.
After the penultimate day of racing, it was evident the champion was going to be determined between a hot trio of boats; Guillaume Girod’s CDE.CH from Societe Nautique de Geneve in Switzerland, Vincenzo Onorato’s MASCALZONE LATINO from YC Monaco/ Italy; and Mario Soerensen-Garcia’s MANDACHUVA from Brazil- about as international a group of sailors you could possibly find! The Swiss CDE.CH had been performing like clockwork; compiling all top five finishes and were leading the regatta. However, there was still a window of opportunity for the “Latin Rascals” and the Brazilians.
As it turns out, the last day and the last two races proved the undoing of many teams in the regatta, with many posting high double-digit finishes that had to be used as their “toss races”. The Swiss maintained their composure and closed with a 7-9 to win the regatta with 24 pts net. The balance of the podium and, indeed, the top five were playing a wild game of “snakes & ladders”. Surviving with a BFD-3 to take the silver was Onorato’s MASCALZONE LATINO’s very talented team with a total of 38 pts net. Six points back were the Brazilians on MANDACHUVA sitting on 42 pts net. Then, the balance of the top five saw the YC Monaco Youth Team on PONANTE, skippered by Nicholas Bouchet, take a surprising 4th place and in 5th was yet another Swiss crew- Emanuel Muller’s ATTAQUE. Of note, by far the best scores in those last two races happened to be Giacomo Loro Piana’s Italian crew on CUJ from YC Costa Smeralda- a 3-6!
In the Corinthians Division, the winner happened to be the YC Monaco Youth Team sailing on PONANTE with young Nicolas Bouchet on the helm. The crew has been very well coached by the YC Monaco Sports Group (note- ready story below about their European college regatta). Rounding out the podium for the Corinthians were Emanuel Muller’s Swiss crew on ATTAQUE with 47 pts and Amaury Berger’s YC Monaco team on SCIROCO with 52 pts.
The next regatta in Monaco is the final Act of the Monaco Sportsboat Winter Series, 9-11 March. Sailing highlights video on YouTube. For more Primo Cup- Trophee Credit Suisse sailing information