All set for Rolex Giraglia 2019 coastal race
by Yacht Club Italiano 7 Jun 19:38 BST
9-11 June 2019
Day 0 - Rolex Giraglia 2019 © Yacht Club Italiano
The Rolex Giraglia 2019 is under way! 104 yachts on the starting line for the coastal race from Sanremo to Saint Tropez. The starting gun goes off at midnight; great excitement on the quayside of the Yacht Club Sanremo before the 60 miles separating the two coastal cities. From 6pm, skippers' briefing, cocktail on the quayside and a firework display at 10:30 pm to salute the crews.
All is ready at the Yacht Club Sanremo for the start of the first race in the 2019 Rolex Giraglia. There are 63 miles to sail in the opening race to Saint Tropez, before the coastal races that will begin on Sunday 9th.
The Sanremo-St Tropez coastal race celebrates its 10th anniversary this year with a record number of entries, 104 yachts from 16 different countries. Looking down the list we find boats flying the Latvian, Polish, Czech, Maltese, Swedish and Turkish flags.
But most of them are Italian or French, with a discreet number flying the Russian flag, eight of them, including Rossko, the JPK 10.8 m of Timofey Zhbankov, winner of the 2018 edition in the IRC category. There are several international yachtsmen, including the Chinese Li An and Gong Teng on Marco Babando's Swan 45 MissK Checkmate.
The biggest yacht to start from Sanremo, at almost 24 m overall, is Sergey Egorov's Arctic Energy, the smallest Mykola Melnykov's 310 Starta, little more than 9.5 m overall.
The overall record for the Sanremo-St Tropez is held by the maxi Esimit Europa, which in 2015 took just four hours and 52 minutes to cover the 63 miles of the race.
The forecast for the midnight start is for an easterly/north-easterly wind of around 10 kts. It will be up to the navigators to decide whether to hug the coast, lengthening the course but picking up more wind, or head straight for Saint Tropez where the big yachts could arrive at dawn tomorrow, Saturday, June 8.
Meanwhile the rest of the big fleet has arrived in Saint Tropez for the start of the coastal races with the gun set for 11 AM on Sunday, June 9.
For now the forecast for the week is looking good, with stiff northerly winds expected for the entire week.
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