Fifty-third run for the Giraglia Rolex Cup, a great Mediterranean yacht racing classic, where the fastest and finest yachts in the Big Blue race over a course covering 243 nautical miles from Saint-Tropez and Genoa, rounding the Iles du Levant then the Rock of Giraglia, off Cape Corsica. The race was created by René Levainville, Franco Gavagnin and Beppe Croce, and has been run over a number of different courses (starting off Cannes, then Toulon or Lavandou, to finish in San Remo or Genoa). Since the fiftieth anniversary, the course has remained the same however. Current race record holder is the monohull Alfa Romeo back in 2003 with a time of 22h 13' 48''. Since the launch of Gitana IV, the Baron de Rothschild's family has often taken part in this race and has made it to the podium on several occasions. It is a great pleasure for the Baron Benjamin de Rothschild to be on the starting line on board Gitana 11 for this legendary Mediterranean race.
This time, seven multihulls will be setting out from Saint Tropez four hours after the 180-strong monohull fleet, in other words at 17h00. These are the same trimarans as those which raced in the Corsican Grand Prix, as the Giraglia is part of the ORMA Multihull Championship, (weighting 0.5).
Weather forecast is for a light NW breeze for the end of the day with a gentle breeze in the Gulf of Genoa on Thursday. The trimarans should be making good ground as far as the Iles du Levant in a beam wind, then over to Corsica with the gennaker up. But it is difficult to know whether or not they will be able to improve upon the race reference time as everything will be decided in the last few miles before Genoa.
Windsurf champion, Jochen Krauth will be sailing with Thierry Duprey du Vorsent on Gitana X, standing in for Mayeul Riffet who was slightly injured in the last round of the Corsican Grand Prix.
Crew - Gitana X
Thierry Duprey du Vorsent (skipper)
Erwan Le Roux (tactician)
Jochen Krauth (trimmer)
Jacques Guichard (trimmer)
Antoine Carpentier (foredeck / n°2)
Léopold Lucet (bowman / n°1)
Crew - Gitana 11
Frédéric Le Peutrec (skipper)
Baron Benjamin de Rothschild (navigator)
Daniel Souben (tactician)
Loïc Le Mignon (wincher)
Antoine Mermod (trimmer)
François Denis (bowman / n°1)
Trimarans entered in the Giraglia Rolex Cup
Foncia : Armel Le Cléac'h
Banque Populaire : Pascal Bidégorry
Géant : Michel Desjoyeaux
Gitana X : Thierry Duprey du Vorsent
Gitana 11 : Frédéric Le Peutrec
Groupama-2 : Franck Cammas
TIM-Progetto Italia : Giovanni Soldini
Provisional rankings in the ORMA Multihull Championship (after the IB Group Challenge and the Grand Prix de Corse) :
1-Pascal Bidégorry (Banque Populaire) 3 points (0+3)
2-Michel Desjoyeaux (Géant) 10 points (6+4)
3-Frédéric Le Peutrec (Gitana 11) 11 points (9+2)
4-Armel Le Cléac'h (Foncia) 19 points (12+7)
5-Thierry Duprey du Vorsent (Gitana X) 20 points (15+5)
6-Franck Cammas (Groupama-2) 21 points (21+0)
7-Giovanni Soldini (TIM-Progetto Italia) 57 points (51+6)
8ex-Thomas Coville (Sodebo) 69 points (51+18)
8ex-Yvan Bourgnon (Brossard) 69 points (51+18)