Just returned from the Loro Piana Cup in Porto Cervo, Sardina (Italy). I was doing tactics on the Richael/Pugh 82 HIGHLAND FLING in the performance class. We were racing against six Wally’s ranging from 80 to 100 ft, plus an 80 foot Italian boat.

Beautiful place to sail with lots of islands and rocks to use as marks. We had some serious wind for the week so some good exciting racing.

Race 1 was a nice battle with us and the top Wally’s. We eventually got past them after a short reach to mark 2, held them off on a long beat up the outside of the islands, and then had a great run down Bomb Alley and stretched enough to have our time on them under the handicap and win on corrected by 2 minutes.

Day 2 arrived with 25-30 knots of wind and the organizers decided it was too much for this field of big boats to race safely in, so racing canceled for the day.

Day 3 was blowing 20 and we had a great race mostly on the leeward side of the island which was protected from the bigger wind and seas. We rounded the first mark in second but then took off on the downwind leg and left the fleet behind, flying around the course with a top speed of 26 knots. We won the race by 14 minutes on corrected time.

Then Day 4 was more of the same, with winds in the 25-30 kt range and forecasted to keep building all day, so after waiting a couple hours, the committee canceled racing for the day.

So unfortunately only two days of racing, but at least they were great ones. And a good regatta for us, wining easily with two first place finishes.

Next up for us with the HIGHLAND FLING will be the Maxi Worlds in September, again here in Porto Cervo. There should be a good fleet of big and fast boats to race against, and hopefully more of the strong winds we like.

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