Argentario Sailing Week 2019 - Day 3
by Tessa Wiechmann 22 Jun 2019 18:02 BST
19-23 June 2019
Third day of racing at the 20th edition of the Argentario Sailing Week with demanding and tactical weather conditions, the stuff dreams are made of according to participants. Patience was rewarded and at 1pm the Race Committee headed by Sandro Gherarducci fired the starting gun with 7-8 knots of breeze from the south and overcast skies.
Once the sun burned through, the wind picked up considerably with gusts reaching to 30 knots and whitecaps dotting the flat seas. After three races, Viola (Vintage Aurici-1908-William Fife III), Comet (Vintage Marconi-1946-Sparkman & Stephens), Ojalà (Classics-1973-Sparkman&Stephens), and Toi et Moi (Spirit of Tradition - 2018 - Dykstra Naval Architects) lead the provisional scoreboard in their respective classes. Tomorrow is the last day of racing and competitors will be able to discard their worst result. The international classic yacht regatta is organized by the Yacht Club Santo Stefano and by the Municipality of Monte Argentario.
According to participants, the easy-going atmosphere together with an excellent organization is what makes Argentario Sailing Week unique. Openness, friendliness and helpfulness mixed with with conviviality are the distinctive traits of Argentario Sailing Wees, as exemplified by the dinner hosted last night at 18th century Spanish Fortress.
Chips is among the seven Grandes Dames of the Sea making their debut at Argentario Sailing Week 2019. "Argentario Sailing Week is a magical venue with a challenging and technical racecourse. We are just getting to know it and we are enjoying ourselves tremendously", stated Blutch Fetas who races on board the 1913 yacht designed by W. Starling Burgess. "My brother Guillaume is the skipper on our sister yacht Olympian, also built that year. We like to say that they share the same mother, namely the P class - but have different fathers. Olympian was designed by William Garnder; Chips by Burgess. The two sisters also have very different personalities. Chips is a very demanding woman, who knows what she wants and does not tolerate mistakes. Over the years she has undergone partial refitting and this means that 106 year-old wood needs to work with new wood. Sometimes, it is not easy to get the two to collaborate". Blutch then spoke of what sea and sailing means to him: in short, life. He works at sea, sails for pleasure and lives on board his boat in St. Malò, France. "Above all, the sea teaches you to be humble and fosters tolerance and collaboration. Sailing to me is a synonym of seamanship and of respecting the rules", he concluded.
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