A string of five back-to-back race victories at the Swan Sardinia Challenge in the ultra-modern ClubSwan 36 class helped Richard Thompson's Black Seal crew – with three top Irish sailors onboard – secure a well-deserved though tight win.
Black Seal finished ahead of Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio's G-Spot – who had won the ClubSwan Racing season's opening event in Tuscany in April – and Edoardo and Vanni Pavesio's Fra Martina.
As Afloat reported earlier, on board Black Seal were National Yacht Club bowman Will Byrne, North Sails sailmaker Nigel Young from Royal Cork and Kinsale ex-pat Jeremy Elliott, in the role of Watch Captain
Ten races were sailed at Marina di Villasimius, a magnificent national park setting that provided some great racing for the Challenge.
Richard Thompson's Black Seal had back to back wins in the ClubSwan 36 fleet Photo: Studio Borlenghi
A delighted Thompson said: "It's great – as much relief as delight because you know we had already had a decent lead going into this morning and really the only people who could beat us were ourselves, but we managed to avoid that, so that's fantastic and everyone did a great job.
"It was a fantastic day's sailing; in fact the best day's sailing I've ever had in a ClubSwan 36 in terms of wind and sea conditions and we recorded a top speed of 21.5 knots today which is pretty fast. I've got to say it's not as scary as it looks. You're slightly scared but you're very exhilarated and actually, the boat handles so well in a breeze."
And he added: "We just really focused down on the simple things and tried to make sure we do all of them really well and not complicate our lives, and somehow that worked pretty well."
The ClubSwan fleet will gather again in Valencia, Spain, from 5-9 July for the Swan One Design Worlds which will establish the 2022 World Champions in each of the one-design classes – the ClubSwan 36, ClubSwan 42, ClubSwan 50 and Swan 45.
