The Swan 60 sailing yacht Bronenosec of Saint Petersburg Yacht Club took the 9th place today, in the finale of the Leg One of the 400-nautical mile race at the 2012 Rolex Volcano Race, taking place in Gaeta, Italy. Today’s course of 100 nautical miles took the racing fleet from Gaeta to the island of Capri, through the Pontine Islands.
St. Petersburg Yacht Club's Bronenosec Tackling Leg One of the 400-nautical mile offshore race at the Rolex Volcano Race (c) Rolex & Kurt Arrigo
Sailing Yacht Bronenosec, sponsored by Gazprom, finished the course in a time of 15 hours 25 minutes. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing as former America’s Cup Tommaso Chieffi explains; “We were expecting a good breeze to bring us to Capri but unfortunately that wasn’t the case and we started in very light conditions. We didn’t have a particularly good start, we think something might have gone wrong with the propeller which we need to check before the start of the next race. But then the wind eventually increased and we went from 270 at the start and went all the way to 135 so it was downwind to the first island in Ponza and then it was a reaching leg after that. So we were hoping for a very fast conclusion to the race but unfortunately it wasn’t to happen. In fact, we had seventeen sail changes in fourteen hours which is more than one every hour so there was a lot of work for the guy up on the bow. So it was a tiring race and luck wasn’t on our side. When we were fifteen miles from the finish the wind completely dropped so we were drifting downwind which wasn’t pleasant. It was pretty much a race that was not won on corrected time but on line honours because effectively it was impossible to catch the big boats on corrected time.”
Slipping slightly in their overall position after finishing second on the first day’s windward/leeward race, the team have their work cut out tomorrow with the second leg of the 400-nautical mile offshore race, commencing at 16:00 CEST as they fight for another scoreboard finish. Following an overnight stopover in Capri, Leg Two takes the fleet around the UNESCO-protected Aeolian Islands, the geological wonders in the Tyrrhenian Sea, before returning to Capri.
Rough conditions are predicted as the week develops, however, looking more cautious than initially forecast. Tuesday will be characterised by a low pressure system, with mostly cloudy skies and a risk of isolated thunderstorms bringing changeable winds. This may lead to very strong offshore winds between Tuesday and Wednesday of 25-30 knots with even stronger gusts. But lighter conditions are expected for the return stretch to Capri.
