The Mistral had other plans on day two of the Range Rover Sardinia Cup in Porto Cervo. What started as a gentle 12 to 14 knot breeze by noon had shifted, strengthened, and built into something altogether more demanding by the second windward-leeward race, gusting past 24 knots and sorting the crews who could handle the mess from those who couldn’t.
Ino Veritas, sailing for the Royal Ocean Racing Club, made that distinction clear. The RORC boat posted a 2-1 scoreline to take the day and push further ahead in the overall standings, though YCCS’s Django WR and Pisa’s RocketNikka remained competitive enough to keep second and third positions in contention. The margins between boats were razor-thin. Spirit of Lorina snatched the first race by a single second in corrected time over Ino Veritas, with the second race settled by just four seconds between the top two finishers.
By afternoon the wind had become the real competitor. Gusts sent yachts planing downwind while crews worked hard at the marks, and the left side of the course that usually rewards boats closer to shore proved far less rewarding than competitors expected. The skippers who nailed their tactical choices early kept their advantage. Those who didn’t found the second race unforgiving.
In the smaller craft division, Ran from RORC Gold delivered the day’s most convincing performance with a first and second-place finish. Django JP from YCCS managed a 3-1 result to stay in second place, while Garm from RORC held third. Across both divisions, RORC’s team points put them comfortably ahead of YCCS in the overall standings, with Pisa’s boats trailing in third.
Conditions on the water were occasionally brutal, yet crews at the top of the standings showed their class when it mattered. Boat handling separates the fields in these kinds of breezy afternoons, and the leaders proved they’d earned their positions through sharp seamanship rather than luck.
Racing resumes tomorrow with two more windward-leeward races at noon CEST. The Mistral is forecast to settle between 13 and 20 knots, which should provide slightly more forgiving conditions than today’s chaotic wind shifts. Once tomorrow’s racing wraps, the first discard comes into play, giving competitors their first chance to drop a result from the series.
