Champagne sailing conditions throw the rankings wide open on day two of the Swan Tuscany Challenge.
Italy’s Gulf of Follonica served up another day of near-perfect sailing conditions to the 23 crews of the Swan Tuscany Challenge. A stable 10-12 knot breeze and glassy seas made for good speeds with no distractions for the mixed amateur and professional crews aboard the fleet of ClubSwan 36s and ClubSwan 50 boats.
Nerves had settled overnight, after the excitement of Wednesday, which marked the long-awaited return of Swan one-design racing. Teams on the quay in the early morning sun were more relaxed, but every bit as eager to get into the day’s racing. On shore technical teams had been kept busy through the night tweaking and repairing sails, and spirits were high ahead of the midday start gun.
“We are trying to improve by watching the others,” said Simon Sivitz, mainsail trimmer on CS36 Farstar. “For instance, we made some small changes to the mast settings compared to yesterday’s leading boats. We are all so close, tacking from one boat to another, trying to find the best position to round the top mark.”
The move paid off, with Farstar scoring a bullet and a 2nd place to put them third overall in the class. But the day belonged once again to G-Spot, Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio’s CS36. He held onto his top position with a bullet, a third and a fourth place in the day’s racing. That was in spite of a 20-degree wind shift to the right, which meant the upwind marks had to be moved during the race.
Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio’s CS36 G-Spot retains the lead in the ClubSwan 36 class, 7 points ahead of Andrea Lacorte’s ClubSwan 36 Vitamina.
Leonardo Ferragamo’s Cuordileone also retains the top spot for the ClubSwan 50 fleet, narrowly ahead of Marcus Brennecke’s Hatari who is just 1 point behind.
