Loro Piana Giraglia: Long distance as a dry spell - calm on the rocks and at the finish line

For the offshore part of the Loro Piana Giraglia, things turned out as predicted. Was the 241 nautical mile race to Genoa last year While the first leg of the race was still characterised by strong winds, the doldrums kept the majority of the crews firmly in their grip for long stretches - and continue to do so.

Giraglia start with a good breeze

At the start off Saint-Tropez on Wednesday afternoon, 97 yachts crossed the line in a good breeze, with the big maxis reaching a good twelve knots. Local hero Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones led the fleet with his new light wind rocket "Magic Carpet e" on. The further the runaways travelled from the coast, the stronger the breeze weakened. When the north-west tip of Corsica lay abeam, the wind died completely and Huang-Seng Lee's "Scallywag 100" set off. Sailing-wise, the Mare Nostrum presented itself as a leaden monster, atmospherically as a smooth canvas for the spectacle of the sky and the rigs.

Leading quartet set themselves apart

But the wind never slept soundly. The thoroughbred racer, originally built for the Sydney Hobart Race, was the first to reach fresh air again and headed for the Giraglia Rock at eleven knots, which "Scallywag 100" rounded at just before six in the morning. As the course turned north, the SOGs of the group of four consisting of the 100-footers "Scallywag 100" and "Magic Carpet e" as well as the ClubSwan 80 "My Song" and 80-foot Judel/Vrolijk construction "Capricorno" fell below five knots again.

Some gave up, others defied the doldrums

The ORC starters who were stuck between Saint-Tropez and Corsica were in a real mess. When the leading quartet was 100 nautical miles off Genoa early on Thursday morning, Martin Baum's Swan 48 "Elan" began to retreat. He was joined six hours later by the Swan 53 "Crilia". The "Scallywag 100" and "Magic Carpet e" fought a duel for line honours, logging double-digit values in some cases, but once again enjoying a maximum boat speed of five knots on land.

Maxis at the finish, the majority still in the race

In the end, it was the Hong Kong 100-footer that crossed the finish line shortly before 9 p.m., taking 1 day, 8 hours and 58 minutes to cover the 241 nautical miles. Three minutes later, "Magic Carpet e" had the jury boat abeam, but finished ahead of "Scallywag 100" in twelfth place in the overall IRC standings (as of midday on Friday). Two places behind was the Neo 430 "Neomind" as the best German yacht, but at 3.00 pm with three nautical miles to go to Genoa. At the same time, the last crews on 30- and 40-footers are heading for the stone turning mark. This shows once again how much the Giraglia is a race of wildly different speeds in light winds.

Here goes to the tracker.