Love them or hate them, coastal races divide opinions in the 52 SUPER SERIES fleet. Indeed opinions differ within the crews themselves. And even at that opinions change from morning to night. Pre-race more sailors tend to love them. Post race? Well, it is usually the winners who are the grinners and those who were dumped early in the race with no opportunity to get back who are the grumpy ones who can’t wait to get back to the more predictable windward-leewards.
The coastal race today should be a passage up around Spargi and Spargiotta islands. With the wind in the Sthat should make for a fast passage up and an interesting rounding of the islands because the lee will be more pronounced on the north side and will make for a challenging, tricky beat back. Francesco Mongelli, navigator on Bronenosec, guards against complacency, a useful warning considering that so many of the navigators are racing here so often.
It looks like we will race around Spargi and Spargiotta which is a typical course here. We usually do this course with the Mistral but this is a different wind. The forecast says a nice breeze 12knots and more. It will be a little tricky. When you round Spargi island there are a couple of rocks which are tricky. The risk for us is to be too confident. These rocks are pretty hard and you always find a new one.
Francesco Mongelli, navigator, Bronenosec
