TRANSATLANTIC MAXI YACHT ROLEX CUP 2007: NARIIDA WINS IN REAL TIME, DARK SHADOW IS THIRD

She is 13 years old but she does not look it: Nariida, the 105 foot ketch representing the first Wally revolution, is the fastest yacht of the first edition of the Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2007!

She was the first maxi yacht to cross the finish line - at 03.06 am UTC on 7th December 2007 -after 10 days, 14 hours, 1 minute and 48 seconds of navigation: she covered the 2,650 nautical mile trip from Santa Cruz in Tenerife at an average speed of 10.24 knots. 

“It was an exciting trip.” Commented owner Morten Bergesen “We had a lot of wind. At the start we hoped to do it in a shorter time but we had a couple of very quiet days. A lot of good wind most of the way, no real accidents no big problems, looking at our routing I think we couldn’t have done better” . 

Skipper Knut Frostad was also pleased with the real time win: “It was a great race. I was surprised by the unusual weather system and we had a very northerly route, which is not the usual pattern, we worked very hard on our strategy and it was right but unfortunately for us in the end we had light winds.” 

After his numerous round the world voyages Frostad also appreciated the Wally combination of comfort and performance “The boat stayed together very well and we had a very very good team on the boat and we had a lot of fun. Fifty percent of our crew are people who have done round the world races with me and they are used to very uncomfortable ways of travelling… so this was a great pleasure to eat some nice food and sleep in a nice bed!”. 

Nariida is still very competitive and efficient thanks to her passionate owner and her excellent crew: congratulations to everybody! 

Dark Shadow, the other Wally in the regatta, was third in real time with an elapsed time of 11 days, 21 hours, 33 minutes and 34 seconds. 

The owner, who will cruise in the Caribbean this winter, enjoyed the crossing: “A lot of up and downs, a lot of adventures and many things happening. It was a lovely trip. Very good team spirit on board and we fought right up to the end in the true spirit of racing. We crossed the line yelling like crazy, like young boys! It’s a pleasure to be here and congratulations to Nariida and it’s a pleasure to have two Wallys. The Wallys did well! It’s a lovely boat and this was lovely racing: well organized, it’s a pleasure to cross the Atlantic with such good organization.” 

The race is promoted by the International Maxi Association and organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda with the support of the Real Club Nautico de Tenerife and the Sint Maarten Yacht Club.