Italian Grand Prix, San Remo after 4 races…..

Super Conditions in San Remo for the 32 teams..

The 2nd IDA Grade 1 of 2021 began on Wednesday 27th Oct in San Remo, one of the most popular Cities on the coast of Liguria, the Italian Riviera. Under the guidance of Principal Race Officer Nino Shmueli and local Race Officer Fulvio Parodi the 32 teams have completed 4 top quality races in fantastic conditions with 16 to 20kts of easterly breeze and surfing opportunity 1.5m waves.

Dragons are even “foiling” upwind in San Remo!

This end of season Grand Prix will also include the “Finals”  on Sunday 31st, to see which team will win the “Flow” (Sami Salomaa’s magnificent bronze sculpture) and be crowned 2021 Grand Prix Champions. Also up for grabs at this regatta is the Overall Grand Prix Corinthian Trophy (donated by Phyllis & Lowell Chang) and the Overall Grand Prix Standfast Trophy (Donated by Klaus Diederichs & Grant Gordon). Scores for 2021 will be taken from the 2 sailed Grade 1’s, Dragor & San Remo. (The 2 other Grade 1 events were cancelled due to covid).

Another amazing photo from Elena Razina just after a start.

Leading the scoreboard at the moment is Andy Beadsworth helming TUR 1212 Provezza, crewed by Arda Baykal and Pedro Andrade. Recording three race wins and a 3rd Andy has dominated proceedings (so far) and shown why he has won “back to back” World Championships in Cascais 2017 & Fremantle 2019. When you put into the mix his crew Pedro Andrade (Former European Champion & Gold Cup winner) plus Arda Baykal from Bodrum, Turkey you can see why Provezza are the team to beat….

TUR 1212 Provezza, powers down the waves in San Remo

Currently in 2nd place overall is RUS 27 “Annapurna” helmed by Anatoly Loginov, crewed by Vadim Statsenko & Alexander Shalagin who have recorded 5,2,2,3 to sit just one point ahead of fellow Russian Dmitry Samokhin RUS 76 “RocknRolla”.

These two top Russian Teams will continue to push Provezza to the limit as conditions moderate, for a couple of days… Unfortunately, lack of wind cancelled today’s racing but Nino & Fulvio are confident 3 more races can be sailed tomorrow, to complete a 7 race series. Other principle contenders are SUI 318 “1 Quick 1” Wolf Waschkuhn & GBR 819 “Fever” Klaus Diederichs, lying 4th and 5th respectively.

RUS 76 “RocknRolla” currently 3rd overall after 4 races.

The Corinthian challenge is also heating up with two Swedish teams battling for glory. Both Karl-Gustaf Lohr SWE 404 and Martin Palsson SWE 401 have everything to play for tomorrow, with only 3 points separating these highly competitive boats. In Dragor Martin Palsson finished 3 places ahead of Karl, so it’s all on the final Grand Prix day to see who will lift the Corinthian Trophy.

Corinthian Leaders so far…. SWE 401 “Nono”.

When the Grand Prix is decided tomorrow and the various winners are presented with their respective trophy’s all eye’s will focus on Finals Day..(Sunday). With 7 of the top 10 boats from Dragor also here in San Remo it is likely that 10 teams will automatically qualify, leaving a possibility of 10 further teams able to also qualify.

A “last chance” race will be sailed first thing on Sunday for teams placed 11 to 32… The top 10 from this race will join the already qualified 10 boats to make the 20 boat “Quater-Final”.. Following that race 5 more boats will be eliminated, so only 15 boats will race in the Semifinals…

The Final will just be the top 10 for the last race of the day… winner take all… and be crowned 2021 Grand Prix Champion!

Watch this space… Higher, Faster, Longer…. Stavros.

So many thanks go to Elena Razina for her brilliant photos. She brings the whole event “alive” !