J-CLASS AT PORTOFINO
Top: The pretty harbour Far left: Shamrock’s binnacle Left: Astra (once rated as a J) moored on the right of Cambria
There will be two races today but with light-ish winds of seven to ten knots no-one is too confident about beating Cambria, which left Shamrock behind in the light airs of yesterday. You can even see Cambria accelerating out of her tacks as she turns; she looks very smooth.
Elizabeth turns to the wind god and implores his help: “Now blow good wind and let me win. We deserve to win! Isn’t this a blast and a laugh,” she says, grinning widely. Sure enough we do get some more wind and having made a great start on the second race we have pulled a few boat lengths ahead of Cambria, but the wind soon falters again and we are overtaken. It’s just not our conditions, Captain Nick says. Elizabeth has brought quite a lot of champagne on board and back at the dock she shares it with Cambria’s crew. It turns into a good-natured party. Are they faster? They think so, but I am not sure The Rock was really tested today.
36 CLASSIC BOAT JULY 2011
I T A L Y Genova Portafino La Spezia
In fact it’s not until after the light-winds race of
Gian Riccardo Marini, CEO of Rolex
Sunday, where the morning had started with a heavy rainfall, that Aeolus shows us our true wind. Cambria has her sails down and most boats are back in harbour. The wind builds up to 15 knots or so and the difference aboard Shamrock is incredible. She gets her lee rail into the water and just goes like a train. Spray flies from her sharp bows as they carve through the choppy waves of the little gulf, and the quarter wave climbs aboard to where I am sat on the after deck. Without a creak from her ring frames she surges forward with a colossal sense of power and this is when our cover shot was taken. There’s a sense of awe on board, and raw excitement too, but also a feeling that it would have been good to race in this, and see how she fared then. It will have to wait for another day. As will my wider interview with Elizabeth, about her work with the Js, the Concordia yawls and the International Yacht Restoration School.
CARLO BORLENGHI
CARLO BORLENGHI
CARLO BORLENGHI
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