Paul Cayar
Rob Weiland
Every cloud
Eventually Porto Cervo did not stay free of the Covid-19 virus. What many, including me, had not foreseen is that the fear to travel abroad caused it to be extremely busy with Italian tourists from the mainland travelling to the emerald coast. Plus and probably in reaction to Italy’s long period of very strict lockdown social distancing was
clearly no longer being practised. Locals claimed it was by far the busiest August of the past 10
years, Italy’s summer holidays month. With the median age of the cases diagnosed in the last week of August coming down to 29 years, confirming a decreasing trend, there can only be the conclusion that circulation of the virus now occurs more frequently in the younger age groups, probably reinforced by reopening of popular recreational centres including beach facilities, bars, discos and nightclubs. The popular Billionaire Club, conceived in 1998 by Flavio Briatore,
had 60 confirmed cases, many of its staff testing positive including the boss himself – and not much later Silvio Berlusconi himself tested positive, recently pictured at his villa on the Costa Smeralda alongside his friend Briatore. Then several guests and staff tested positive for the virus at the
Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. At the same time local authorities were confirming that positive cases were also traced in other public facilities in Porto Cervo, leaving no alternative than to cancel the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup and the Rolex Swan Cup just five days ahead of the first race day. Emotions ran high, such a major decision taken so close to the
events… Of course the owners and teams present and on their way to Porto Cervo were disappointed not to race but I experienced support and understanding for the decision. Over the past half year we all have got somewhat used to the fact that not much goes to plan these days.
36 SEAHORSE In hindsight it is easy to say the risk should not have been taken
but up till mid-August northern Sardinia, the province of Sassari, hardly had any increase of positive tested cases – and then within two weeks the number of positive tests jumped up by 400. Every precaution was taken at the yacht club itself but it can only be con- cluded that there is no way to keep out the virus once members, guests and staff mix too closely with holidaymakers and locals outside the club. The sense of security triggered by the Sardinian Covid statistics
up to August proved no guarantee for the weeks to come. Possibly a week or 10 days of quarantining the club, so a closure for members and guests between the holiday season and the events, would have been the way to go – but even if possible easy to say this after the event. With the 2021 Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup planned for 5-11 September,
so a week later than this year, it will in fact be easier to create a bit of a gap between the clubhouse being in full use by the members and it being in full use for the event. Let’s hope by then there is less reason to worry. Not an easy start for the new commodore of the YCCS and former TP52 class member Michael Illbruck, elected just four weeks before the year’s biggest event. Things can only get better, Michael! At the moment I am, with some help from an expert, rebuilding
the TP52 class website in WordPress, a popular free open-source content-management system, and am copying the content of the old site over to the new one. As the class website is very large (about 500 pages) due to its large number of historic News Pages, there is quite a bit of work! Hardly anybody reads these pages any more but it is the only place the class history is kept and I am hesitant to discard them. So I relive our history doing this work. The evolution of the TP52 class rule, the boats, the members, the sailors, the results whether in the Transpac, MedCup or 52 Super
CARLO BORLENGHI
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