The new canting keel 98ft maxi yacht Alfa Romeo has taken line honours in the Giraglia Race by a massive margin, although light winds prevented Neville Crichton from getting anywhere close to breaking his own course record for the 243-mile race.

Boat for boat, his new canting-keeled, hydraulic-powered yacht is a far more potent package than the previous Alfa Romeo, a conventional 90ft Maxi, but a lack of wind saw the winning Maxi finish more than five hours outside the record set in 2003.

Finishing at 1630 hours local time yesterday, with an elapsed time of 27 hours 48 minutes and 12 seconds, Crichton was disappointed not to have bettered the record. Speaking at the Yacht Club Italiano in Genoa, the New Zealander commented: “A very slow race. We thought we were going good until midnight last night then ran out of breeze. Up until then it looked good – we were flying. After that, Magic Carpet came right up to the back of us. I’m not sure how far behind us she is now. We came out of the Giraglia Rock well, but the wind died about 12 miles from the finish. So no records, maybe we’ll have to try again this time next year.”

The remaining 196 boats in the race are still bobbing about on a near windless Mediterranean, wondering when the breeze might fill in and carry them the rest of the way to Genoa.

Winner Line Honours
Alfa Romeo (Neville Crichton)
Finishing Time: 1630 hours
Elapsed Time: 27 hours 48 minutes 12 seconds

Rounding times at the Giraglia Rock (top 10 only)
1. Alfa Romeo – Neville Crichton (NZL) – Supermaxi – 0917 hours – finished
2. Magic Carpet – Lindsay Owen-Jones (GBR) – 95-foot Maxi – 1148 hours
3. Our Dream – Claudio Uberti (ITA) – IMS Maxi – 1259 hours
4. My Song – Pierluigi Loro Piana (ITA) – Reichel/Pugh 85 – 1303 hours
5. Y3K – Claus-Peter Offen (GER) – 94-foot Maxi – 1344 hours
6. Capricorno – Rinaldo del Bono (ITA) – ILC Maxi – 1346 hours
7. Junoplano – Sandro Buzzi (ITA) – Open 60 – 1349 hours
8. Dark Shadow – Anonymous – 100-foot Maxi – 1351 hours
9. Cuordileone – Leonardo Ferragamo – Swan 601 – 1405 hours
10. Atalanta II – Carlo Puri Negri (ITA) – Farr 70 IMS Racer – 1410 hours

Overall Results of the inshore series
Class 0-1
1 Atalanta II – Carlo Puri Negri (ITA) – Farr 70 IMS Racer – 13 points
2 Edimetra VI – Ernesto Gismondi (ITA) – 65-foot Maxi – 18 points
3 Brave – George Vasilopoulos (GRE) – Farr 520 – 28 points

Class 2-5
1 Synergy – Alexei Nikolaev (RUS) – Grand Soleil 40 RC – 7 points
2 Despeinada – Italo Borrini (ITA) – Grand Soleil 40R – 10 points
3 Clean Energy – Alberto Cogni (ITA) – IMX 40 – 11 points