SLAM Racing News July 2008
ARMANDO GIULETTI WINS THE FLEET REGATTAS ABOARD HIROSHI CITTA’ DI MILANO
BMW ORACLE (WITH LARRY ELLISON AND RUSSELL COUTTS) WINS THE MATCH RACE WHICH WAS HELD DURING THE EARLY PART OF THE EVENT
SLAM, the Fraglia Vela Malcesine sailing club and the RC44 class sailboats were protagonists, over the past few days, at an event which could best be defined as "sailing par excellence". The big names in international sailing, top skippers from the Americas Cup and, naturally, the presence of SLAM clothing worn aboard the most competitive boats at the Malcesine SLAM CUP. Five days of superb sailing and outstanding performances especially as the boats often passed just a few metres away from the shore, under the amazed gazes of the tourists who flock to Lake Garda at this time each year.
SLAM on-board BMW ORACLE, which won the Match Race with Larry Ellison making a real mark as helmsman and Russell Coutts on tactics (and with official announcement made at last Tuesday’s event launch press conference of an agreement, between the two parties, for SLAM to be the Team’s official apparel supplier at the 33rd Americas Cup). SLAM clothing also featured aboard Banco Espirito Santo which won the “Trofeo DHL” long race with an exchange of tacticians: Dean Barker went onto BMW ORACLE and Russell Coutts took his place on-board Banco Espirito Santo. Both crews wore New Hissar Bermuda shorts and Bistrow and Grig t-shirts. New Mistral shoes featured as Russell Coutts’ preferred footwear.
Lake Garda lived up to expectations, over the first few days, with the wind and sun enabling a series of extremely technical and tactically difficult regattas. Only on the last day, yesterday, did the thunder storms, which began on Saturday night, stop the wind which usually blows relentlessly from the south from early afternoon.
The event was divided into three competitive episodes: during the first two days Larry Ellison (with Russell Coutts on tactics) won the match race on BMW ORACLE. On Saturday, the Trofeo DHL was awarded to the Portuguese “Banco Espirito Santo” (where Russell Coutts took on the tactician’s role) in the “long” 14-mile regatta. And on Sunday it was the turn of Italy’s Armando Giulietti, owner of Hiroshi-Città di Milano, to win the fleet regatta class, an award arrived at by totalling the points achieved at Thursday’s 3 trials and adding them to the points from Saturday’s long distance race. An outstanding performance for Giulietti who also won a place on the podium in the match race, for finishing 3rd overall.
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