Harry Macklowe’s Unfurled and Irvine Laidlaw’s Highland Fling have been crowned the winners of the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta 2011 in Porto Cervo.

With strong winds forcing today’s final race to be cancelled, Unfurled’s 1st and 2nd places from previous days earned victory in the Cruising Division by 1 point from Kora 5 of Portofino, with Hasso Plattner’s Baltic 147 Visione in 3rd overall.

Harry Macklowe commented: ‘Boat International and Yacht Club Costa Smeralda run a wonderful regatta, the weather is beautiful and the boats are gorgeous. Thank you for a wonderful time.’ Macklowe received a bespoke Chihuly glass artwork, specially commissioned for the regatta for his 1st place finish in the Cruising Division.

The strong winds that prevailed for the week suited the ultra-light planing hull of Irvine Laidlaw’s Highland Fling XI. The Reichel-Pugh 82 scored two 1st places to win convincingly ahead of Andrea Recordati’s Wally 101 Indio, with Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s My Song in 3rd overall.

Principal Race Officer Peter Craig was sad not to be able to stage a final race for the 27 yachts, but it would have been a tough and dangerous day on the Costa Smeralda. ‘We were seeing all the forecast models predict 30 knots plus in the afternoon,’ he said.

This afternoon the prizegiving at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda brought the regatta to a close, with the wind still blowing hard but the sun beaming down on hundreds of sailors and guests.

In addition to winning the Performance Division, Highland Fling’s corrected time calculations under IRC, across all races in both divisions gave Lord Laidlaw the Loro Piana Prize Overall, the Silver Jubilee Cup by Boat International Media.

Highland Fling won further awards for the top classified YCCS Member and the top classified member of the International Maxi Association.

Lord Laidlaw said his greatest pleasure this week was: ‘Sailing with a great team who just didn’t make a mistake, and being part of that team. People are working hard all the time, and it all goes so smoothly. I love coming to Porto Cervo, we have a home here. We’ve been coming since 1982 and will continue coming here until I kick up the soil. I love the weather and I love the wind.’

Other prizes went to Southern Wind’s 33.6 metre flagship yacht Thalima as the best classified Southern Wind yacht and to Salvatore Trifiro’s 50 metre Zefira as the best classified vessel from the Fitzroy Yachts shipyard. Ed Bosarge’s spectacular 56-metre ketch, Marie was presented with a beautifully framed, hand crafted light chart of the Bonifacio Strait by Latitude Kinsale for best representing the Spirit of the Regatta. The yacht sails with a grand piano below decks (sometimes played during racing), a full suit of armour, and a cannon which is fired every time Marie goes to sea.

YCCS Commodore Riccardo Bonadeo was understandably proud of the event’s success: ‘Despite difficult weather conditions this has been a great event. The racing was great as was the social side and the collaboration with Loro Piana and Boat International Media is a winning one, as shown by this spectacular fleet. I have never seen such a fleet of superyachts gathered together in the Mediterranean before. The new rules which ISAF has allowed us to apply, regarding safety measures for racing superyachts, are a step forward and I know organisers and participants alike are already looking forward to the 2012 edition.’

The Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta 2012 will take place early June 2012.

Racing has been abandoned after principal race officer Peter Craig decided the conditions were not going to improve sufficiently for safe competition.

‘Our boat has been seeing 25 knots with gusts of 29 knots, and this is consistent with the forecast models that predict the breeze increasing to 30 knots plus in the afternoon,’ he said. ‘So we have flown November over Alpha flag, racing abandoned.

‘It has been a pleasure working with everyone at this regatta, and remember that the time for the prizegiving has been pulled forward an hour to 5pm this evening.’

As the principal race officer predicted, the breeze is building in Porto Cervo. Peter Craig commented: ‘Our boat on the water has seen an increase in average windspeed to 24 knots, with gusts of 28-29. We’ll keep the postponement flag in play, and we will monitor the conditions, but we suspect the chances of getting a race in are becoming slimmer as the day goes on.’

Steve Hayles, navigator on the 54.6m Vitters ketch Marie, gives the chance of racing today as no better than 50/50. “The strong wind seems to have arrived earlier than the forecast told us. It’s a north-westerly and when the wind is blowing from that direction in Sardinia it’s nearly always windier than the forecast predicts.

‘But our owner is keen to go racing, and even if there’s no racing we might go out anyway for fun. Go fire some cannons,’ added Hayles, referring to the three-gun salute that is fired every time Marie departs the dock.

Principal Race Officer Peter Craig is keeping his options open, but is concerned that the wind will be too strong to hold today’s final race.

“The big breeze we expected to pump in mid-afternoon has come in quite a bit earlier,” he said. “However we’re going to hold out some hope. We’ve sent out a service boat to monitor the breeze just outside the harbour, and the service boat is reporting 22-23 knots with puffs of 26 knots. That leads us to believe racing is unlikely to happen, but we’re not pulling the plug yet.”

Based on forecasts calling for a building breeze later in the day, the initial signal for the Performance Class will be moved up to 11:00 for racing on Saturday, June 11, 2011. The Cruising/Superyacht Class will start as soon as practical after the Performance Class Start.

Kora 5 of Portofino and Highland Fling were the winners on Fitzroy Race Day, the third day of the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta 2011 in Porto Cervo.

The sun was strong and the wind blew hard, the wind gusting up to 24 knots. Wisely the race committee set a southerly race course away from the stronger breezes that funnel past La Maddalena island.

Kora 5 is one of the lighter boats in the Cruising Division, and was not expecting to fare as well as she did today, as owner/driver Paolo Scerni commented afterwards. ‘These were not the best conditions for Kora, but she still did very well.

‘I saw that one of our competitors Thalima had a problem with the spinnaker, and without that they might have beaten us. We had no real problems and sailed a good course around the track. Our tactician Lorenzo Bortolotti has done a great job, and so did the crew.’

Kora 5 now moves to just 1 point behind series leader, Harry Macklowe’s Unfurled, but Scerni knows that Unfurled are a class act. ‘They don’t make many mistakes, they are great sailors and really nice people. In the end all we can do tomorrow is sail our own race and see what happens.’

Unfurled skipper Adam Bateman said he was ‘nervous and confident’ all at the same time, when looking to securing victory in the series tomorrow. He has big faith in the crew. ‘The majority have been sailing together for five years, so we have a lot of experience on board, and we work really well together as a team.’

Owner Harry Macklowe has been racing Unfurled in Porto Cervo for more than a decade, but keeps on coming back year after year. ‘The place, the people, the organisation are all wonderful. We really enjoy being here and the sailing today was sensational.’ For Macklowe and Unfurled, a regatta win tomorrow would be the icing on the cake.

Today’s contest had a lot to do with keeping the boat together. Others didn’t manage so well. Lady Thalima, Ganesha and Saudade all failed to finish, in Saudade’s case due to a broken mainsheet that snapped just before rounding Monaci. Liara sailed most of the race without a mainsail, but still managed a finish in 11th place.

Twizzle may not have finished high up the rankings, but the owners said they enjoyed themselves all the same. ‘It was a great race, nothing broke and no one was hurt. Safety takes priority in such winds, and we have learned a lot. We’re used to sailing in strong winds, but racing in strong winds is different.’

Irvine Laidlaw loves racing in strong winds, and proved it with an emphatic win in the Racing Division aboard Highland Fling. The 82-foot Reichel-Pugh design won by almost 14 minutes on corrected time ahead of Indio. ‘Upwind the boat is more or less the same speed as other boats in the class, but when we turn downwind, the boat is incredibly fast,’ he said. ‘It’s easy to helm, amazingly stable, and twice we saw the clock tip over 24 knots. But we do have a very good crew; at that speed things could get nasty very quickly. Today was just a lovely day on the water, a really great sail, and a great race.’

Pier Luigi Loro Piana may only have finished 5th in the race with My Song, but he was cheered all the way by title sponsor Loro Piana’s VIP guests, who enjoyed following the racing from the comfort of a Maxi Dolphin 50ft tender. My Song lies in 3rd overall behind Highland Fling and Indio.

This evening, owners look forward to an evening of delicious food, cocktails, music and dancing at the Owner’s Beach Party held in the beautiful grounds of the 5-star Hotel Romazzino, considered one of the world’s most beautiful resorts. Guests will enjoy a reception on the lawn overlooking the enchanting beaches and jewel-coloured waters of the Costa Smeralda, before dancing the night away to music by top international DJ Oliver Fatemi.

Meanwhile, the 27 sailing teams are rewarded with a Crew Party in Porto Cervo Marina Piazza with food, drinks and a live band provided courtesy of contributing sponsor Sardinia Yacht Services.

With a strong wind forecast set to increase throughout the day tomorrow, the race committee has pulled forward start time by an hour to 11:00 local time, with the intent of completing a short race before the breeze gets too strong for safe racing.

The Cruising Division has set out on a 27-mile course that takes them reaching south towards and around the islands of Mortorio and Soffi, before turning north past Porto Cervo to Monaci and then back to Porto Cervo.

The wind is blowing just over 20 knots, a challenging but raceable wind speed for these large yachts. The narrow confines of Bomb Alley would have been a step too far, and this open sea course will give the fleet more manoeuvring room.

Karol Jablonski, the America’s Cup skipper calling tactics on Saudade, sounded a little nervous before departing the dock this morning. ‘We are expecting 22 to 24 knots of wind, and obviously with our 65-metre-high rig on Saudade, there will be a lot more wind up there,’ said the Polish professional. ‘It will be on the limit for us, and we have have to be focused on managing the boat and getting safely round the course.

‘As the biggest and fastest boat, we have to observe the 40m safety rule, so we might have trouble finding the space to go past other boats. It will be a tough race.’

The Cruising Division start in a staggered formation to avoid the risk of a crowded start line. The Performance Division, on the other hand, start en masse and are racing an extended version of the course which will take their total distance to 32 miles.

Superyacht Media have also produced video highlights of the event so far, with footage from today’s race sponsored by Fitzroy Yachts just uploaded. Click here to check it out!

The race committee reports racing is scheduled to start on time on Fitzroy’s Race Day. The sun is shining and winds are blowing around 18 knots from the west.