Aniene & Low Noise continue their early leads in the series; inshore racing resumes today .With finish times ranging from 20 to nearly 36 hours, the fleet of 29 entries in the ORCi European Championship Prysmian-Celdrin Trophy
today finished their offshore race held around Giglio and Cerboli islands off the Tuscan coast. This race, which started and ended near the host club's harbor at the YC Punta Ala, was actually scored as two races: the first lap of 80 miles scored as Race 2 in the program, and the second race was sailed over the entire 146-mile course and scored as Race 3.
Conditions in the two races varied from light and drifting to a solid 17-18 knots during last night, and the TP52 Aniene led by famed Italian tactician Vasco Vascotto once again trounced her rivals in Class A, defeating the nearest runner-up, Armin Schmid's Swiss Farr 400 Sonnenkonig, by over 1 hour 21 minutes in corrected time. In having also won Race 2 (but by only 6 minutes), her scorecard nonetheless is a perfect string of firsts earned thusfar in the event, and with bonus point scoring, has an impressive lead of over 14 points over current runner-up, Giovanni Lybos Sylos's Exprivia Luduan Reloaded, with Sonnenkonig moving into third only 1 point back.
After a brief postponement to wait for breeze, the 17 entries in this class were so eager at their start that a General Recall was needed, followed soon thereafter by the Black Flag displayed by PRO Dodi Villani - he and his YC Punta Ala team were intolerant of any further delays in getting the fleet off and running.
And once around the top mark, the aggression even continued with some competitors on the long spinnaker reach to Giglio, 30 miles to the south, where the fleet was also given an up-front view of the wrecked cruise ship Costa Concordia.
In Class B the standings are not nearly as clear cut, although Monday's class leader, Giuseppe Giuffre's Italian M37 Low Noise, continues to dominate the class, but only a few points ahead of Vincenzo de Blasio's Italian NM38S Scugnizza. And on the strength of winning Race 2 today, First Sailing's Czech Beneteau 40.7 Three Sisters made a large leap in the standings to sit now in third.
But even though these class leaders may look safe now, if the planned number of 9 races is completed then Race 2 can be discarded, and thus force a re-shuffle of the final results.
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