Mistral winds kept building at Porto Cervo on the fourth day of the 23rd Rolex Swan Cup, from 16 knots at the opening starts to gusts of 25 knots by the close of racing. As the coastal race neared its finish, the Swan 128 Rajin hit 18 knots on a broad reach in the 22-knot breeze.
The ClubSwan One Design fleets ran two windward-leeward races, while the Race Committee laid on four separate coastal courses for the rest of the fleet, ranging from 26 miles for the Swan Maxi classes down to 16 miles for the Swan Legacy and Pure Cruising divisions. All boats started upwind into the Passo della Bisce strait before splitting onto their respective tracks around La Maddalena, Spargi and the Secca di Tre Monti shoal.
Freya, a Swan 90, has turned her regatta around completely. After a sixth in the opening race, she has now won two straight and leads the Swan Maxi class on 8 points, just one ahead of Spiip.
Arobas backed up her form in the Swan Mini-Maxi class for a second day running, stretching her lead over Cloudy 7 to two points.
From Now On trails Swan Cruiser Racer leader Thetis by a single point after climbing from seventh on day one with two consecutive wins.
Elan has taken the lead in the Swan Legacy ≥47' class by one point over Shirlaf, 4 to 5. The bigger comeback belongs to Mascalzone Latino XXXIII in the ≤44' class, fourth in the first race and second yesterday, which won today to close the gap on leader Pride from four points to just one.
Lunz am Meer holds a more comfortable buffer in the Classics by Frers division. The Swan 651 leads on 4 points, with her nearest rival on 9, after two opening wins and today's second place behind Cygnet.
The Pure Cruising classes remain tightly bunched. In the Swan Pure Cruising class, a win for Luca F puts her back in contention: eighth yesterday, she now sits third on 10 points behind leader Alegher on 8 and Black Zero on 9. Azzurro, a Swan 78 that finished seventh on the opening day, has won successive races to draw level with Coco de Mer atop the Maxi Pure Cruising standings on 9 points, with Miss 5K just one point behind.
In the one-design ranks, Hendrik Brandis's Earlybird swept both ClubSwan 50 races to lead on 4 points after discard, ahead of Leonardo Ferragamo's Cuordileone on 9 and Marcus Brennecke's Hatari on 13. Pedro Vaquer Comas's Nadir did the same in the ClubSwan 42 class, taking the lead level on 6 points with Pez de Abril, ahead on countback, with Jerome Stubler's Raving Swan third on 9.
Edoardo Ferragamo's Cuordileone and Nikolai Burkart's Goddess split the wins in the ClubSwan 36 class, with Cuordileone retaining the overall lead on 4 points, ahead of Goddess and Edoardo Pavesio's Fra Martina, both on 9. Giulio Gatti's Anya Race moved to the top of the ClubSwan 28 class on 7 points, with Lorenzo Bortolotti's Black Swan one point behind and Michael Kiss's Bacio, winner of today's second race, third on 16.
Crews gather this evening on the lawn of the Pevero Hotel for the Rolex Dinner Party, one of the week's biggest social occasions, with nearly 2,000 guests expected.
Tomorrow's finale is forecast much lighter, 7 to 8 knots from the north-east, with the first signal at noon CEST. Prize-giving follows at 5pm in Piazza Azzurra at the YCCS.
