For the crew on "Red Bandit", it was like déjà vu: only last year, they had been involved in the dedicated Admiral's Cup mission. her sad mast-breaking exit have to experience. At the Range Rover Sardinia Cup it was now a broken rudder that brutally stopped the TP52, which had only just got going again.
Sascha Schröder's German team partner "Neomind" was not spared either. Her crew had to abandon the powerful long-distance race with a broken backstay. Both boats competing in the Italian waters under the team umbrella of the Bavarian Yacht Club will not be able to continue their series on the Costa Smeralda.
Mistral long distance takes its toll in the Range Rover Sardinia Cup
And they weren't the only ones to lose out on the long distance of the Sardinia Cup. In view of the strong mistral conditions, albeit decreasing as the long distance progressed, two of the large yachts in the SC1 class, the IRC 52 "Spirit of Lorina" and the Botin 44 "Albatros 3", did not even turn up for the start. There had previously been some excitement on Wednesday about whether the race in 30 knots - and even more in gusts - should be started at all with the coastal racers.
Alongside the serious aspects of the criticism, this debate between the British race officer Stuart Childerly and his team on the one hand and Italian teams in particular on the other also had an almost light-hearted flavour. "The British race committee is very, very good. They know what they're doing, but of course they're also painless," said "Red Bandits" co-project manager Moriz Forster about the discussions surrounding the long-distance start. "It was an English race organisation versus the Italian mentality..."
With his announcement to postpone the long distance from the afternoon, when the wind was still blowing around 40 knots, by five hours into the evening and an expected 30 knots, the race officer also asked the crews by email in perfect British politeness not to contact him personally. Further announcements would be made via the official channels. And so 18 of the 20 Sardinia Cup yachts set off on the power play in the dream area at around 8 pm.
Endurance test at the Sardinia Cup: six large and nine small boats made it through
"It went into a beautiful sunset and was absolutely doable. Of course, not all boats are made for such conditions, especially in the big class. On the other hand, it's all teams and boats that also want to sail a Fastnet. ", said Moriz Forster. Six out of ten boats in the large SC1 class and nine boats in the SC2 class made it through.
With the big ones also repeated the result of the Coastal opening race over 130 nautical milesJames Neville's British TP52 "Ino Veritas" was the first to cross the finish line after just under 33 hours. He was followed by Lombardi Stronati's Wallyrocket "Django WR" - sailed and also according to IRC-calculated time - ahead of Roberto Lacorte's Wallyrocket "RocketNikka". In SC2 Roman Pers' Swedish GP42 "Garm" won ahead of Niklas Zennström's IRC 41 "Ran" and Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's bot Fast 40+ "Django JP".
There is no question that the team from the Royal Ocean Racing Club with "Ino Veritas" and "Garm" has maintained its lead. in the team ranking in the battle for the Range Rover Sardinia Cup with just 9 points. In second and third place after a Coastal and the Long Distance are the team from the host Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (15 points) with "Django WR" and "Django JP" ahead of the advanced Yacht Club Republicca Marin with "RocketNikka" and the Karkeek 40 MK2 GP "Nola", which came fourth in SC2 on the Long Distance.
Technical knockout for both GER boats
The team from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club is no longer in the race after the technical knockouts on the long course. The young "Red Bandit" crew who had just spent six months fighting for their new mast, waiting for it and putting it in the boat in April. At the World Championships in Sorrento in May, the "Red Bandits" had not yet been able to turn it into a success.
"We went in without any training. The conditions were difficult: always waves, sometimes a lot of wind, sometimes very little. We quickly realised that we needed help to adjust the new mast," reported Moris Forster. With the support of Spanish professional and circumnavigator Gonzalo Araujo, we succeeded.
"We had developed a good mast trim chart with him over three days. Then came the topic of sails. We first took two square metres out of the main. All the jibs also had to be changed," says Moriz Forster about the optimisation process of the "Red Bandit" with its new mast. The crew had just tested the result of all their efforts in recent weeks for the first time this week in the first race at the Range Rover Sardinia Cup and felt that they were "back in our groove".
Next "Red Bandit" goal: Copa del Rey
"Red Bandit" was on a par with the top boats at the Sardinia Cup and even led the first race for a while. Even though she finished sixth in class SC1 at the end of the Coastal on Tuesday (2 June) because the wind changed over the last few miles, the crew on the Bayern Express agreed: "We're back. The first Coastal proved it."
But then came the long haul, the rudder book and the end. Another hard setback for the Forster team, who had already worked so hard for the new mast. Now they are back on land, considering whether to have a new rudder built by McConaghy Boats China or to purchase and optimise a reasonably suitable used one. The thinking and decision-making process is already in full swing, as the next regatta they want to sail in is the Copa de Rey at the beginning of August.
"We can be creative," Moriz Forster knows from painful experience. Like him, the "Red Bandit" crew would love "to be on the boat and sailing again rather than sitting next to it and organising". There are still 63 centimetres left of the rudder, which presumably broke off without a collision on a downwind leg. These need to be "optimised" for the transfer to Palma de Mallorca, as does a new or good second-hand rudder. After their mast accident at the Admiral's Cup, the team has already proven that they have good taker and comeback qualities. These are now required once again.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
