Talamone Winter Trophy – Final

Talamone, November 2-4, 2012. Regatta report by Augie Diaz.

We sailed for the second time in Talamone in the Winter Trophy Classe Snipe held on November 1-4. Sailing in Talamone’s “Snipe Bay” as it is called, is nothing short of spectacular.

First there is the Town of Talamone, simply a beautiful spot in the south of Tuscany with its own castle atop a hill overlooking the entrance to Snipe Bay- magical, absolutely. Talamone’s beauty is that of dreams and the setting is so beautiful and unique that it was used in a recent 007/Bond movie- if you have been to Talamone, you recognize this instantly. From the water the views are such that it is hard to concentrate on the racing and you will catch yourself more than once in the middle of the race admiring the beauty around you.

Then there is the race course. Within minutes of the dock, there is at least three different race course areas that can be used depending on the conditions and despite the locals claiming that the right side is favored, I have found the race course to be quite open with different sides working depending on the conditions. There is some current, but not overpowering. Definitely a fair and challenging race course.

The regatta was held over three days and we had light winds the first day, medium/light the second (watch the video) and good pressure on the third day. After the first day Paolo Lanbertenghi and Silvia Pederiva had the lead, Kathleen and I had the lead after the second day and Enrico Solerio and Sergio Simonetti came on strong on the last day to win the regatta. My Italian brother, Pietro Fantoni and Nicola Gerin sailed very well on the final day to finish third overall with Paolo and Silvia finishing fourth and the Italian Rocket himself, Fabio Rochelli and his super crew Daniela Semec were fifth.

We sailed the new DB Marine boat and we were very fast in all conditions except when there was “operator error” on the last day and we went to the right side of the course and we fell behind.

On the social side Talamone is very special. With very interesting places like Siena and Orbetello nearby, there are many places to see and restaurants to eat at. At the bottom of the hill across the street from a large parking lot where the Club staged the Piada Trophy in July, there is an outside bar that is perfectly positioned for after racing drinks and during the Piada a bunch of the Snipers were dancing to the varied, but mostly reggae sounds of Barry White’s ex-lead guitarist- very cool. We had a great party on Saturday night at the Circolo della Vela Talamone where we ate and drank too much and had a lot of fun with our Italian Snipe family. Before the dinner, Nicola Gerin and Kathleen Tocke gave the Juniors attending a regatta at the same time a very nice discussion on the days racing (watch the video). It was refreshing the level of interest on the part of you sailors in double handed sailing and I think they could easily become future Snipers.

I believe that Talamone would be a great site to hold the World Championships, it will be great sailing and a great party also. Talamone is a short train or car ride from the Rome/DaVinci airport. There is camping near the regatta site also.

A special thanks to Alessandro Testa, who not only organizes the wonderful events in Talamone, but being a very good sailor himself, runs the races on the water very effectively.

Video – Training on Thursday evening

cvt-Snipe-_Invernale_Snipe_2012-classifica_-_def.pdf