Perini Cup 2009

Written by Germán de Soler / Photos: Carlo Borlenghi. Sargentini & Gattini. Translation: Marco Benevento. Issue Nº 49

Events

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The pleasure of the sailing

Very few are the opportunities to sail on board of Perini during a regatta with winds of over 30 knots, with hundreds of square meters of sail putting tension on the halyards and sheets of impossible diameter while the shrouds where transferring the enormous pressure of the rigging on each square centimetre of the hull without the slightest vibration moving the glass of champagne you had just left on the table of the upper bridge. This is the opportunity that Perini offered to us: racing at the 2009 edition of the Perini Cup on board of Perseus, along the Costa Smeralda, against a fleet of 18 other Perini.

Following the success of the 2004 and 2006 editions, Perini could not stop repeating the event and this year was, like the previous ones, at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda on the 4th and 5th of September. The masts of the fleet of 18 Perini that gathered in Porto Cervo sketched in the clear sky by the strong westerly wind that prevailed during those days, a forest of aluminium and carbon under the impressive control of the masts and spars of the Maltese Falcon. The race, created in pursuit format with staggered start times every two minutes began with the smaller boats, at noon on September 4th.
On board of Perseus, with the guests gathered on the upper deck, Captain Aaron Abramowith, the skipper at the wheel Bill Lynn and Mike Cox as tactician, waited their turn to start the 25-mile race planed with a close hauled leg to the Monaci Island, back to the Mortoriotto rocky islets, where presumably the fleet would have come together, and down to the entrance to Porto Cervo.
With Elettra starting first and the 184 footer sloop Salute the last one, Perseus soon reached an intermediate position on the first leg, with 30 knots of true wind, the main reefed down to the fifth largest spreader, the mizzen down to the third spreader and with the staysail open. Within sight of the whole fleet, the Maltesse Falcon quickly became the visual reference on the horizon, sailing with three square sails on each of the three masts. Abeam from us, the sloop Heritage M also had reefed down the main and the staysail. Sailing upwind to the Monaci, as predictable, concentrated the fleet to the point that the right of way became important when it came to tack around as if it was a buoy were more than one lost some positions. That is what happened to the sloop Helios that tried to tack before us, but they were slow and our right of way being on the starboard tack forced them to yaw and to remain astern of us.
After the island, Mike Cox decided to hoist the genoa. The fleet had stretched again, and the most daring Captains hoist the whole sail area that the owners would allow them. The variations are as many as the boats. Some with furled main and genoa, others as well with the staysail, like us on board of Perseus, with the mizzen and the main reefed, staysail and genoa.  Luckily we are on board of one of the units whose owner, Marc Byrne, really likes to compete and does not seem to suffer too much by the pressure that he is putting on his boat, with no doubt to the limit right now.
The night before, a technical team in Italy had been working all night making a shaft for one of the captive winches of Perseus that had broken. The part arrived in its own private plane to Corsica early in the morning and was installed a few minutes before the start, with such a tight timing that even the pilots of the plane that had brought the piece had to stay on board.
After overtaking Electra, one of the Perini from the seventies, a problem with the mainsheet forces us to change the tack and finishes with our options to be among the first, and we cross the finish line behind Heritage after two intense hours of racing, remaining in the fifth place in the compensated time.
In fact, the pursuit race format with the time compensation carried out after according to the rating favours, within the length of the Perini, those boats that tack the least because that is where most time is lost. Hence that is why they avoid the tacking wars that are usual on fleet racing with small units, and the important being to maintain the optimum course to avoid them. In fact, the huge amount of navigation electronics on board of Perseus, added to the skills of a fine helmsman – it is surprising that such a giant behaves with the finesse with which Perseus did – allowed the accurate calculation of the best course, speed and rigging for every wind condition. The good work of the tactician and the helmsman on board is corroborated by just three tacks made in 25 miles. At the end, just 10 minutes separated us from the first to cross the finish line, Maltese Falcon, after sailing for two hours and 11 minutes. Along with Maltese Falcon, the winners of that day were Felicità West, Antara and Andromeda la Dea. Salute deserves a special mention, for completing the course in the fastest time of the fleet. These positions would be definitive as the race the next day was cancelled, agreed by the owners, because of the excessive wind.

Not just a race

The Perini Cup is not only a sports event. In fact, the race itself occupies only half the time of the owners and the guests. Everything else, from getting ashore to the end of the night, is for social events within the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, either at the headquarters of the club itself, either on board the yachts, where as every year took place the traditional Mediterranean Blue Cocktail Contest, this year won by Heritage M. The highlight of the event, a dinner on the terrace of the Yacht Club, with live music and a fireworks display as a finishing touch that turned the bay into a superb night show.
Organising an event of the calibre of the Perini Cup is not easy. The shipyard’s support team, made of nearly a hundred people at the service of owners and guests, was completed with the fleet of Audi cars, co-sponsor of the event along with the nautical fashion firm Marina Yachting, Rolex, Axa, Pommeroy Acqua di Parma and Icet. Besides the trophy, the overall winner, Maltese Falcon, was presented with a Rolex GMT Master.
Apart from Maltese Falcon, Salute, Felicita West and Barracuda were awarded as the fastest yachts, the last one having the added merit merit of having started with a few minutes delay from its time. <<