Mariquita Book - mk2.5

LE VELE D’EPOCA A NAPOLI
27 – 30 June 2013
Racing in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius, in the beautiful Bay of
Naples, this regatta promised to be eventful – and so it proved.
Mariquita made her debut in Naples, in her
third regatta of the season, at Le Vele d’Epoca
a Napoli in late June. As the largest boat in
the fleet it was decided that Mariquita was
too big to fit in the small harbour opposite
the Reale Yacht Club
Canottieri Savoia,
which was hosting the
event and acting as
the race committee.
Instead, Mariquita
spent the week next
door in the Italian
Naval base which
had its moments! However, this was all
overshadowed once the racing started on the
Thursday. Keen to put on a spectacle for the
city, the start line was positioned extremely
close to the beach. As Chris Tibbs put it, “I
think we were a little bit bigger than the race
committee had experience with. On the first
day, the start line was almost impossible. With
the line so close to the beach and marina, we
had to come in late on port tack, then tack
around, which potentially was dangerous as
we had no rights on port tack and finding
a slot was very difficult. This became a
theme for the whole regatta.” John Caulcutt
commented, “We
didn’t feel that any
of the starts were in
tune with what was
needed for a Big Boat
Class.” Despite the
controversy there was
some great sailing
with a lovely race
over to Capri and a wonderful broad reach
to finish the second race. Crew member Billy
Butler described it as “a cracking race, with
a fantastic final reach into the finish line
knocking along at nearly 11.5 knots – almost
maximum hull speed.” After an eventful
week the crew began to prepare for the long
passage through the Strait of Bonifacio, and
onto Barcelona for the next regatta.
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