Sailing / Press Release n.33 19 May 2005

XX Edition World Festival On The Beach
Palermo Mondello 11-22 May 2005

PERCY +39, CIAN THE NEAPOLITAN, BERTSSON FROM SWEEDEN PROTAGONISTS OF THE ALBARIA’S CENTO CUP

There is a scent of the America’s Cup mixed in with the spring air in Mondello’s Gulf where the World Festival on the Beach is being held, you can see the sails of the “Cento Cup 2005” , a grade 1 match race. After the first group of rounds, the +39 team leaded by Iain Percy from Britain is first in his group with 4 achievements even with Cian the Neapolitian specialist, once the “Mascalzone” helmsman in the last Cup, and the Sweedish guy Jonnie Bertsson, while in the other group only young Steve Jarvin from Austrailia won 4 times. This helmsman is a world champion in the under 20 races, apart from being champion in his own country. In Jarvins group behind him came the favourite, the Frenchaman Mattieu Richard, the 4th best in the world, the Italian champion Simoncelli and the Russian Neugdnikov were also in his group. In the series of races in Percy’s group after the first three we can find the other +39 team with coach Roberto Ferrares (winning twice), the Australian Dunstan with one win and the Russian Andrei Arbuzov at zero.
All the races were carried out by gusty winds that created a few problems during the first races, while yesterday’s matches went very well. The races will go ahead until Saturday with the finals.