Having Saturday’s Rolex Middle Sea Race start from Malta without the presence of 2016 winner Mascalzone Latino, the Cookson 50 owned by Vincenzo Onorato and navigated by Ian Moore, is a bit like staging Hamlet without the Prince writes W M Nixon.
But the reigning champion – which has also been ORC World Champion in recent years - is already well into a completely new campaign towards the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Race 2017, and it has been confirmed this afternoon that the Mascalzone team have seen their wide-ranging programme towards Sydney off to a flying start with a mighty win in the 673-mile Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, their qualifier to take part in the often rugged sprint to Hobart.
Admittedly there were just 13 boats in the Vietnam race. But as one of them was significant sister-ship Ubox, the Cookson 50 that finished third overall in IRC and first in ORC in the Sydney-Hobart 2016, the Mascalzone crew had a useful marker to speed them towards Vietnam in a swift and rugged race. It was something like 95% offwind. and initially warm and wet with spray and then hot and wet as they closed in on the finish, after 2 days 5 hours and 25 minutes.
They were third on line honours and soon confirmed as first overall on IRC. And they did a horizon job on Ubox. After the Reichel Pugh 63 Lucky was navigated by Ian Moore to an exceptional win in the 2015 Transatlantic Race, the crew said that having “Soapy” Moore calling the shots was as good as knocking at least 150 miles off the distance to be race. Well, in the much shorter Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, Ubox was all of 120 miles astern as Mascalzone Latino finished……
Night finish. The winning crew at Nha Trang in Vietnam, Ian Moore in middle of second row
The winning crew were Vincenzo Onorato, Adrian Stead, Ian Moore, Lorenzo Bressani, Flavio Favini, Leonardo Chiarugi, Matteo Savelli, Gaetano Figlia di Granara, Stefano Ciampalini, Pietro Manunta, Davide Scarpa and Justin Clougher.
Some you’ll know, some you won’t, but of particular interest is that last name, Justin Clougher. His family may well be from Tyrone way back, but he’s from Tasmania and is a full-time racing sailor now based in Newport, RI with enormous offshore experience including many Sydney-Hobarts. That he is included in Mascalzone’s crew in their buildup towards Sydney is indicative of the care that is going into planning and implementing this impressive campaign.
