Podium Places Settled in Four Divisions After Five Races

Saturday saw the final day of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup with all the podium places finalised in the four divisions after five spectacular races. Each of the winners received, in addition to some coveted trophies, an equally coveted Rolex Yacht Master R…

In the IMS Class, Ernesto Gismondi’s Edimetra VI held on to beat Riccardo Bonadeo’s Rrose Selavy, which meant that Bonadeo had been beaten by his older, smaller boat.

In a mirror-image of the IMS maxi finish, the two Wally 88s, Tiketitan and Tiketitoo, which had been having private match races every day, saw the company founder, Luca Bassani, switch from the much newer Tiketitoo to his old boat, Tiketitan, which is now owned by Germany’s Thomas Bscher.

As the scoreline was reading 4 – 0 in the older boat’s favour, there was something of a test to see if it was the boat or the driver which was responsible. So, there was some satisfaction for both when Luca Bassani scored his first 88 victory of the week, but Thomas Bscher saw his boat achieve a clean sweep over Tiketitoo.

But neither was going to be in the winner’s enclosure as the leaders were all 77-footers. Second in yesterday’s last race was enough to give Alessandro Grande’s Vae Victis victory by half a point at the last gasp. The race was won, for the only time this week, by Claudio Luti’s Tuamata and the overnight leader, Mattia Medici, slipped to second after being slowed by a ripped spinnaker and finishing third.

Sail damage also ended a perfect run for Carlo Perrone’s 80-foot Virtuelle, but it was a score he could discard, and the four wins in the first four races had already made him unbeatable in the Cruiser division for yachts under 30m.

The overnight dead heat in the ‘Heavy’ cruiser division was settled in favour of Harry Macklowe’s 112-foot Frers sloop Unfurled as rival George Lindemann was unable to race his 180-foot Adela on the final day. Macklowe was beaten for the first time yesterday by Pasquale Natuzzi’s beautiful Antonisa.