Barking Mad wins Rolex Farr40 Worlds in last race

[Source: Rolex Farr40 Worlds 2009] You cannot ask for much more. Tremendous racing conditions with a building Mistral and a lumpy sea, made worse by the constant attention of the spectator fleet. Porto Cervo laid it on thick and the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds 2009 delivered. None more so than the new World Champions Barking Mad (USA) and runners up, Nerone (ITA).

Two races were sailed in winds from the northwest that gusted to the mid-twenties and stretched the already tired crews on the last day of competition. The scene was fit for a Championship finale and the two leading contenders made sure the curtain did not fall on the regatta without a flourish from those on stage. Nerone put her marker down to win the first race of the day and set up a winner takes all, second and final race - the tenth in this intensely fought series. Mascalzone Latino, the three times World Champions won the race, but the all-too significant result was Jim Richardson and Barking Mad crossing the line ahead of Massimo Mezzaroma's Nerone to secure the title for a third time. The first time an American boat has won outside of their home waters.

Highlights from the 3rd and 4th day of the Rolex Farr40 Worlds 2009. Porto Cervo, 27 June 2009. Video Coypright Rolex

The day was all about who would cope best with the pressure. Without question both the two leading teams wanted the win desperately. Even Joe Fly (ITA) - runners-up in 2008 - could not be discounted. A sixteen-point gap to the front could easily be bridged if those ahead failed to keep their heads to the end.

Nerone went out all guns blazing. Once again she took the left side of the course popping out from the pin; tactician Vasco Vascotto relying on his vast experience in these waters to take the initiative early, “I've sailed here for twenty years and usually with these kind of conditions you need to go left.” He could not have been more right. First to the windward mark, Nerone led around the track to win from Giovanni Maspero's Joe Fly and Helmut Jahn's Flash Gordon (USA). Barking Mad, meanwhile, had opted for the centre and according to Richardson, things did not go as well as intended, “the first race today we probably started a little too conservatively and got in a bad spot, in too close to another boat. We had to do a clearing tack, and then got tacked on a few times, and we were deep for a while.”

These are the moments that championships are won and lost. Rounding the top mark mid-fleet, the American crew may have briefly wondered if this was the regatta slipping away from them.

But Richardson and crew had a game plan and were not about to give up on it just yet, as Hutchinson chips in, “without question we felt we could win going into the start of the week. But feeling it and doing it are two completely different things. When we lined up on the first day we had a mode that we have not had in a while. We had a game plan of being safe and the mantra all week on the boat was that we just want to get on base, we didn't want to hit any home runs, just keep getting on base and advancing the runners.” To get back 'on base' in this race was going to take some effort.

Barking Mad, 2009 Farr 40 World ChampionPorto Cervo, 27 June 2009. Photo copyright Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

If doubts were creeping-in none were shown. “We showed a lot of fortitude to sail back through the fleet to finish sixth which kept us one point in the lead,” said a relieved Richardson.

The minds of both crews must have been buzzing heading to the start of the final deciding race and Mezzaroma takes up the story, “for the last race we were one point behind and the game was who came home in front would win the Worlds. It rarely happens in sailing and after nine races with 250 points that you could gain or lose, just one point between us was very exciting.”

Again, it was all down to keeping one's head and applying the game plan. Nerone headed left once more. Mezzaroma confirmed their strategy did not change because of their relative position to the leader, “we were one point behind and were not in a position to control them. So we had to make our own race.” On Barking Mad, the lure of the left was not so strong. This was a conservative crew after all…

According to Richardson, immediately before the start, “we just looked at each other and said this is why we're here. We're here for an opportunity to win the regatta on the last race. What more could you want.” Any self-doubts were kept private, though post-race Richardson confessed to some troubled thoughts, “I never doubted my team's capability. But leading wire-to-wire puts a little bit of extra pressure on each and every race. In 1999, we led going into the last race and ended up third, so that was in the back of my mind. I felt pretty comfortable that we were going to be able to get a good start in the race and get around the course in good shape. We certainly weren't giving up. We knew we had our hands full, but we knew we had to sail well and that is what we did.”

As the initial beat unwound, the crew of Barking Mad found themselves in second place, hot on the heels of Alessandro Barnaba's Fiamma (ITA) and overtaking them at the offset mark with a textbook spinnaker hoist. Those watching the racing started counting back to Nerone. The left had clearly not paid. In fact, it had bitten the Italian crew hard. The miraculous recovery of the previous day that kept them in the hunt was going to have to be repeated. That was a Herculian task. Barking Mad were not sailing as though their lives depended on it, they did not need to. They just needed to keep between Nerone and the finish, as Hutchinson explained, “the team responded brilliantly. We got a great start. We got a little break from Plenty, who let us tack across them. From there it was into a good lead and extend. Fortunately Nerone was back. They gained on us on the second beat, but we were safe down at the bottom mark. At that point it was about minimising damage and sailing a good clean race through to the finish.”

With Barking Mad home and dry in second, the finish of Nerone was immaterial, although eighth was good enough to hold onto the runner's-up position overall.

A feature of the Farr 40 fleet is the friendly rivalry between crews on and off the water. Vascotto and Hutchinson have been adversaries for many years, but they found time to speak this morning before heading onto the course, as Hutchinson remarks, “I saw Vasco this morning and we chatted for a couple of minutes. Nobody was around and it was a nice time to talk.” And, it is evident that the competitors hold each other in a regard rarely seen in other sports. “Sailing against somebody like Vasco makes you a better sailor and we hold the highest respect for that team,” he adds.

Both Hutchinson and Richardson knew they had been engaged in a battle royal. When they last won in San Francisco it was by 40-points. Mezzaroma echoed the quality of the contest, “it was a great competition sailing against all these good crews, these good boats. It is the key of the Farr 40. The level is always so high, it becomes higher and higher every year.” Vascotto, too, was gracious in defeat, “I think we did a fantastic championship: three firsts, two seconds, two eighths - usually you win with these kind of results! This time we found in front of us Barking Mad, sailed in a perfect way. We tried our best, but this is sport.”

For Richardson, it is a dream come true, “We're very, very happy. Coming to Italy and winning this World Championship in Porto Cervo is an amazing feeling for us. There are so many good teams out there, particularly the Italians and to be able to win in their home waters is a great thrill for us.

We tried to stay calm all week. It's easy to get too wound up and too hyped up. Our basic philosophy throughout the regatta was not to take chances, or take risks. If necessary we ducked boats rather than try to force an issue. Our point-score is a tribute to how well we sailed the boat, without taking any risks. Our worst race was a sixth and that is pretty good.” He is not kidding, no previous winner of the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds has averaged less than four points for the Championship. As Vascotto pointed out, even Nerone's score would have won in all previous years.

For Vincenzo Onorato, the outgoing, three-time (in a row) World Champion, who laughingly remarked that his last race this year was the first race of his 2010 Rolex Farr 40 Worlds campaign, this was “a wonderful story for the Class.”

After four days of competition, played out in an exceptional venue, we'll allow the winners to sum it up: “there's nothing better than this, that's for sure!”

PROVISIONAL STANDINGS AFTER 10 RACES
Place, Boat Name, Owner, Nation, R1-R2-R3-R4-R5-R6-R7-R8-R9-R10-Points

1. BARKING MAD Jim Richardson USA, 1-6-4-1-6-6-3-3-6-2-38.00
2. NERONE Massimo Mezzaroma ITA, 5-1-13-2-4-2-1-8-1-8-45.00
3. JOE FLY Giovanni Maspero ITA, 4-5-5-4-1-19-2-6-2-5-53.00
4. MASCALZONE LATINO Vincenzo Onorato ITA, 2-10-2-9-8-1-13-13-7-1-66.00
5. FLASH GORDON Helmut Jahn USA, 20-4-3-11-11-20-4-2-3-3-81.00
6. PLENTY Alex Roepers USA, 12,13,19,13,10,4,15-5-4-7-102.00
7. TWINS Erik Maris FRA, 14-8-15-14-5-5-6-18-8-9-102.00
8. TRANSFUSION Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AUS, 9-7-1-3-20-25-5-4-17-13-104.00
9. ESTATE MASTER Lisa & Martin Hill AUS, 8-18-10-7-15-21-9-10-5-10-113.00
10. TWT Marco Rodolfi ITA, 6-9-14-19-13-13-7-1-20-15-117.00

Barking Mad leads Rolex Farr 40 Worlds after 5 races

[Source: Rolex Farr 40 Worlds] Two races, two winners, no change at the top. The wobbles have begun though and the moves are being made in both directions. Rudyard Kipling could have written his famous poem about day two at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds 2009. Three boats held their nerve the best. Jim Richardson and Barking Mad (USA), Giovanni Maspero and Joe Fly (ITA), Massimo Mezzaroma and Nerone (ITA) kept the damage to the minimum and lead the fleet going into day three.

Today was all about keeping your head at the start line. Neither race got away cleanly. The first race required two attempts, the second three. In the first race two boats still got it wrong second time around despite the threat of a Z Flag - which adds an irredeemable three-point scoring penalty at this regatta if you are over early. In the second race the phrase 'losing it' springs to mind, as eleven boats sailed the course under the shadow of the penalty flag.

Highlights from day 1 and 2 of the Rolex Farr40 Worlds. Porto Cervo, 25 June 2009. Video Copyright Rolex

Those got away cleanly through luck or judgement had a relatively easy day. Both Barking Mad and Joe Fly led their races; both sailed in mid-teen westerlies, from start to finish. The Italian crew had the better day posting a fourth in the first race to keep all their scores so far in the top five. The Americans posted a sixth in the second race, but stay in first overall. These two are separated by one point, with Nerone's score line of 2, 4 sufficient to lift them into third place, seven points off the pace.

So, if those three were the movers, who were the shakers. Transfusion, for one. The Australians took a solid third in one race and hefty twenty in the other. Vincenzo Onorato did only slightly better, with a combined score of seventeen-points, but the Z-flag in the second race suggests a chink in the usually impregnable armour of Mascalzone Latino (ITA). Fiamma (ITA) may have only slipped from eighth to ninth in the overall standings, but a look at the score line shows a damaging thirty-four point day that has dented Alessandro Barnaba's Championship challenge.

Barking Mad has been on the Farr 40 circuit longer than anyone competing here. A core crewmember is Linda Lindquist-Bishop, former America's Cup sailor with America 3 and one of two women on the team. Lindquist-Bishop is clear on the route to success today, “in the words of my great sailing mentor, Buddy Melges, the best strategy is to get out in front and stay there and that is what we did in the first race today. In this fleet an awful lot of it is about the start and that is why you see everyone just really choked up on the line, wanting to be in the right place at the right speed right at the gun, because literally quarter boat length off the line, without enough pace, and you're buried and you really have to fight back.”

Start of race in day 2 of the Rolex Farr40 Worlds. Porto Cervo, 25 June 2009. Photo Copyright Rolex / Kurt Arigo

For a long time Farr 40s were sailed with nine crew, but in recent years there has been a move to ten and more often than not the tenth member is female. Lindquist-Bishop explains that the reasoning is not just weight-related, “we used to sail these boats with nine, but about three years ago we changed from fractional kites to big mast head kites and now we sail the boats completely differently within the manoeuvres. The tenth person used to be an extra that just filled in, but now they have a very specific set of tasks on board. The tenth pair of hands is very useful. It's a strength position too, so it is a good combination to have a good, strong, light person and if you look we have Olympic level sailors in that tenth position.” One such Olympian is Carrie Howe, a trimmer on another American boat, Flash Gordon, currently lying seventh overall.

Giovanni Maspero the owner of Joe Fly is delighted to be in second overnight and equally pleased with the consistency of their performance, “yesterday and today we always were able to have great starts, the speed up-wind has always been to good so we were always able to get in the top five.” Asked what the secret is to staying at the front, Maspero rolls his eyes and laughs, “there are absolutely no secrets! We have been racing in this class for many years. We have had to be patient and improve every year. Only in the last one year have we reached the potential of our performance.”

Maspero's tactician, Francesco Bruni is more sanguine in his response to the same question, “we've been pretty conservative tactically and we've had very good starts. So far that has been the key to take you to the top mark in the top five. We've dropped some places in a couple of the races, but we can't complain. It's about being consistent.”

Bruni is a three time Olympian, each time in a different class (Star, Laser and 49er), so a man who knows all about the importance of start line position. For him the adage location, location, location could easily apply to the Farr 40 Class, “the first hard decision is which position on the starting line because it makes such a huge difference. It is a long line so it is a big difference if you start on the pin or committee end. Starting well and in the right place is so important.” Once off the line, Bruni agrees with fellow-Italian Vasco Vascotto on Nerone that the left side has seemed favoured, but he sees some variation, “so far the left corner has been working well, but with some exceptions so it is not absolutely clear. For me you need to start well, go left, but keep your eyes open. Downwind it has been a little more tricky. There are a lot of passing lanes and you see a lot of things changing.”

No doubt we'll see more things changing when racing continues tomorrow, 26 June, with the first gun at 11.00. Geoff Stagg of the Farr 40 Management Committee is quite certain of that, “this is when it really heats up. Yesterday there were no problems on the line; today it was different with a lot of boats carrying penalties. It will be the same tomorrow. Those that can't stand the heat will start falling by the wayside. The pressure is really, really coming on.” If the racing tomorrow is as intense as today, bring it on!

PROVISIONAL STANDINGS AFTER FIVE RACES
Place, Boat Name, Owner, Nation, R1-R2-R3-R4-R5-Points

1. BARKING MAD Jim Richardson USA, 1-6-4-1-6-18.00
2. JOE FLY Giovanni Maspero ITA, 4-5-5-4-1-19.00
3. NERONE Massimo Mezzaroma ITA, 5-1-13-2-4-25.00
4. MASCALZONE LATINO Vincenzo Onorato ITA, 2-10-2-9-ZFP 6-31.00
5. GOOMBAY SMASH William Douglass USA, 7-2-12-8-7-36.00
6. TRANSFUSION Guido Belgiorno-Nettis AUS, 9-7-1-3-ZFP 20-40.00
7. FLASH GORDON Helmut Jahn USA, 20-4-3-11-ZFP 11-49.00
8. FIAMMA Alessandro Barnaba ITA, 3-12-7-10-ZFP 4-56.00
9. TWINS Erik Maris FRA, 14-8-15-14-ZFP 5-56.00
10. KOKOMO Lang Walker AUS, 10-15-9-12-11-57.00

Rolex Farr 40 World Championship ready to rumble

[Source: Regatta News] For the 26 crews gathered in Porto Cervo for the twelfth Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, the last few days have been a frenzy of checks and practice, as the main event looms large on the horizon. With ten nations represented, this year's Championship is a truly international affair. Ten races are scheduled, every one of which will count. The margin for error will be unfriendly and small. No one could be accused of trying to talk the talk ahead of this event, but tomorrow we will have a clue as to who is prepared enough to walk the walk.

The nine Italian crews with the reigning and back-to-back three-time champion in their midst, are undoubtedly pre-start favourites to put forward a worthy winner. They will not have it all their own way. The heavy hitters from the USA count a two-time former champion in their ranks and the Australian teams are stacked with top-quality sailors. The French and Germans field immense experience and are capable of the consistency required to win. The Danes and Greeks are not here to make up the numbers. And, whilst the crews from Great Britain and the Ukraine may be outsiders in the Farr 40 Class, with a changeable weather forecast offering a mix of light and strong conditions over the four days of racing, there remains room for even those with the longest odds to dream.

Atalanti, owned and helmed by Stratis Andreadis, trains on the eve of the World Championship. Peter Isler is calling tactics. Porto Cervo, 23 June 2009. Photo copyright Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

All eyes will be on Vincenzo Onorato and Mascalzone Latino (ITA), gunning for an unprecedented fourth title, following their unprecedented successful title defence in 2007 and an equally unprecedented third in a row victory last year. Onorato put his marker down at a light-wind Rolex Capri Sailing Week a month ago holding his nerve the best to secure overall victory. Onorato, though, is an archetypal superstitious Neapolitan and never discusses his prospects. However, with his trusted lieutenant and tactician, Adrian Stead, alongside him and a crew with exceptional experience in the winner's circle, few would argue against his headline billing.

The Rolex Farr 40 Worlds were last held in the Mediterranean mecca of big boat racing in 2003, when Massimo Mezzaroma's Nerone (ITA) emphatically blitzed the opposition winning with a race to spare. Mezzaroma has finished in the top ten of the Championship every year since and is certainly a contender to revisit former glories this year. Evidence of ambition was plain to see in Miami in March and then again in yesterday's practice races.

Nerone, owned and helmed by Massimo Mezzaroma, trains on the eve of the World Championship. Vasco Vascotto is calling tactics. Porto Cervo, 23 June 2009. Photo copyright Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

Mezzaroma is openly positive, "I know that Sardinia is a lucky place for us, every time we've been racing here we do a good job. We are confident we can have a good Championship." Sailing once again with tactician, Vasco Vascotto, Mezzaroma has reason to be self-assured. He has made only one crew change since 2003 and the weather forecast is for some wind for the first part of the event at least, "we are pretty comfortable with every condition, but with strong wind we feel better. I certainly prefer a windy week for us; 2003 was very windy with 20-25 knots."

Class President Jim Richardson and Barking Mad head the clutch of American boats, champing at the bit to recover some bragging rights in a preserve that used to be their own, until the rest of the world got wind of how rewarding sailing in the Farr 40 could be. Richardson won the first ever Worlds back in 1998 and followed it up in 2004 with a win in San Francisco, but significantly he and his compatriots have yet to convert a victory outside the USA (and the Bahamas - before any one calls in a correction). Along with Richardson, Helmut Jahn/Flash Gordon, Doug Douglass/Goombay Smash and Alex Roepers/Plenty will be aiming to put the record straight and prove they can travel.

The Australians have come the furthest to be here and have some longstanding pedigree in the Farr 40 Class. John Calvert-Jones was the first from Downunder to take the world title back in 2000 in Newport, Rhode Island. Richard Perini snuffed out the opposition on a tiebreak in Sydney in 2005 and, whilst neither is still active in the class, their legacy remains. Mark Walsh won with Calvert-Jones in 2000 and is part of Lang Walker's Kokomo crew here. Guido Belgiornio-Nettis and his Transfusion crew won the 2008-09 Australian Championship sailing Perini's former Worlds-winning boat.

Belgiorno-Nettis is taking a lot on. Despite a self-evident family connection with Italy, he is certainly not at home sailing in Italian waters. "This is the first time we've sailed in the Med on the Farr 40; we've only ever sailed in Australia," he explains. "We're also sailing a different boat and have only had a week to get used to it."

Barking Mad, owned and helmed by Jim Richardson, trains on the eve of the World Championship. Terry Hutchinson is calling tactics. Porto Cervo, 23 June 2009. Photo copyright Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

So, whilst happy to be at the Worlds, Belgiorno-Nettis is understandably circumspect, "it's very exciting. We're as prepared as we're going to be for the time being. We're still a young crew, we're still learning; so I think this is going to be a regatta to give us a feel for how we fit into the world elite of the Farr 40s. We've only been in the class for a couple of years now, but we've been working with a pretty consistent group. It's part of the secret.if there is a secret!"

Sailing on Transfusion as tactician is Tom Slingsby a two-time Laser World Champion, one of a number of highly-successful dinghy sailors competing here; more on some of the others over the course of the event.

For the moment sit back, relax and enjoy the peace. The 2009 Rolex Farr Worlds gets underway tomorrow and according to Geoff Stagg, of the Farr 40 Class Management Committee, "we're in for a treat. Watching twenty-six forty-footers on the line. going into a mark is a lot of action. Anything can happen. Anything."

The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship 2009 is organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and the Farr 40 Class Association. Racing will be held in the waters off Porto Cervo, Sardinia from Wednesday, 24 June to Saturday, 27 June.