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Marco Nannini - Ocean Racing
Class40: UniCredit launched after Route du Rhum refit
Following a three week refit at Endeavour Quay in Gosport, Marco Nannini's Akilaria Class40 was launched yesterday in her fresh UniCredit livery in preparation for the Route du Rhum which will start on October 31st from St Malo.
Class40: Marco Nannini will be at the Route du Rhum with UniCredit
The Italian born UK based skipper has announced his entry in the Route du Rhum 2010 on his Akilaria Class 40 which will be renamed “UniCredit” for the race following a recent sponsorship agreement.
After the Round Britain and Ireland it’s your turn!
The Shetland Round Britain and Ireland has been a fantastic experience, we sailed hard and learnt a lot about the boat, the competition was very stiff in a thrilling race right up to the finish line.
I wish to thank all those that sent messages of support during the race; it really made a difference to us through the highs and lows of ocean racing. Now it's time to turn the page and work towards the future, which will include the Route du Rhum at the end of October and ultimately the Global Ocean Race 2011-2012.
Nannini and Peggs, Podium result at Shetland Round Britain and Ireland race on Class 40 SunGard Front Arena
Italian skipper Marco Nannini and british Co-Skipper Paul Peggs have completed the Shetland Round Britian and Ireland Race achieving a well deserved podium result taking second place overall in the final leg from Lowestoft to Plymouth on the Class 40 named SunGard Front Arena for the race. The duo led the the RBI fleet up to the last headland where the wind shut off and forced some of the boats to kedge in the adverse current waiting for the morning breeze to fill in and transforming the final few miles in a lottery as to who would get the wind first.
Sungard Front Arena first at longitude of St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight - Fujifilm just behind
It's been a tense 24 hours since we passed Dover in first, our lead over
Fujifilm was gradually reduced during the course of the night and at one
stage was eroding real fast, as we had hit the a new flow of adverse
current in light airs allowing the distinctively green boat to close in
to as little as 8 miles while enjoying slightly better conditions
behind us.
The long sleepless night saw us tacking endlessly within a band of wind
that seemed to hang some 5 miles offshore, we didnt want to go to far
off in the channel but too close to land and the wind would shut off.
The rest of t
SunGard Front Arena first at Dover - Fujifilm closing the gap
At 12 o'clock we were right by Dover harbour wall, according to the position report we're still holding first but Fujifilm has closed the gap from 15.8 miles last night to 10.4 making for a very stressful and tense sail, the pressure is really on.
We seem to struggle to point high in anything less than 10 knots of wind and end up with very wide tacking angles, which means we make very little progress forward and towards Plymouth, things are made worse by the strong tide we have had against for the last 4 hours... hopefully things will get better as the tide turns.
The race is on for the final leg of the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland
We slipped our mooring lines and we are going in circles waiting for our restart time at 18:32, this is the last leg of the race, first boat to Plymouth wins. The pressure is on...
