Alfa Romeo Makes it Four out of Four in Spain

Alfa Romeo III continues her winning ways at the Copa del Rey. Supplied image.

by Edward Rowe

New Zealand Mini Maxi Alfa Romeo and her Kiwi skipper, Neville Crichton, have maintained their perfect score on the second day (4 August 2009) of the Copa del Ray Regatta in Spain, adding another two race wins to her score and putting Alfa Romeo ten points ahead of her nearest rival.

“Alfa Romeo is continuing to perform exactly as we had hoped,” said Neville Crichton at the end of the second day in the five day event. “With such a new yacht, we are still learning how she performs and I am in no doubt that we still have a great deal more performance to extract from her.”

The second day's light conditions favoured the big boats of the IRC group enabling Alfa Romeo to remain undefeated after comfortably winning, by an even larger margin than day one, both races.

The Reichel&Pugh 70 footer won the first race after choosing the left-hand side of the area on the first beat, and repeated tactics, and victory, in the second race. Neville Crichton's Mini Maxi seems to be working perfectly, despite being only recently out of the shipyard where it was rebuilt. The fantastic skills of the crew include British skipper, three times gold and silver Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie, who makes his debut in this, the most important regatta in the Mediterranean.

The results from the first two days confirm that Alfa Romeo is currently the fastest boat in the IRC fleet, as well as possessing a crew with the best understanding of the conditions the Gulf of Palma.


Alfa Romeo III continues her winning ways at the Copa del Rey. Supplied image.

Overall Positions (yacht/skipper/owner/club/class/race results/points - top 6 of 16 boats)
1 ALFA ROMEO NEVILLE CRICHTON NEVILLE CRICHTON N.Z.Y.CLUB MINI MAXI 1-1-1-1 4pts
2 CONTAINER UDO SCHUETZ MARKUS WIESER R.C.N. PALMA SLOOP STP65 3-3-5-3 14pts
3 BELLA MENTE HAP FAUTH HAP FAUTH NEW YORK Y.C. MINI MAXI 2-2-4-8 16pts
4 CAM F.LEON/F. SANCHEZ LUNA SAR DON FELIPE DE BORBON RCNA/RCNGC TP52 4-5-2-5 16pts
5 ALEGRE ALEGRE YACHTING LT DANDY SORIANO Y.C. MONACO MILLS68 6-7-3-2 18pts
6 JETHOU SIR PETER OGDEN SIR PETER OGDEN R.Y.S. MINI MAXI 7-4-6-9 26pts

ALFA ROMEO III RESULTS

Skipper: Neville Crichton
August 2009 Copa del Rey 4 x Line Honours

Alfa Romeo