After Naples' gate Marina Militare is leading the pack

At dawn on the sixth day of the Marina Militare Nastro Rosa Veloce, and when the gate of Naples is now behind us, it is the crew of the Marina Militare (Andrea Pendibene-Andrea Trani) who show the way to the Genoa's finish line to a fleet that, right from the start, sailed compactly to the point of passing through the Agrigento gate grouped in just under 30 miles.

Having contained the escape of Città di Taranto (de Pfyffer-Goldbery) during the descent of the Adriatic, when they suffered from the transalpine pair a gap never exceeding 15 miles, Pendibene-Trani attacked strongly in the Ionian. Having passed the Crotone gate in third position, about 10 miles behind the aforementioned City of Taranto and Regione Sardegna (Nicchita-Gamenara), whose performance is proving to be particularly solid, the Beneteau Figaro 3 of the Marina Militare left the pacesetters sailing south , following a direct route towards Capo Passero. Having halved the gap, Marina Militare demonstrated ability to vary the tactical approach between offshore navigation and the typical one of buoy racing, marking the pace in the tacking duel in south of Sicily until finding itself in command abeam of Sciacca. Position then defended during the ascent towards the Naples gate, made challenging by the Mistral which reached peaks of 30 knots.

When just over 300 miles remain to the finish line in Genoa, Marina Militare sails abeam Castel Volturno, followed closely by Città di Taranto which, at the moment, is in its wake. Further offshore, 11 miles behind, Regione Sardegna is positioned, arm in arm for a few hours with Carta Giovani (Andrea Cupaioli-Lorenzo Donati), carried by the youngest couple of this edition of the Marina Militare Nastro Rosa Veloce. The provisional ranking is completed by DR Automobiles (Ambre Hasson-Aina Bauza), Aeronautica Militare (Giancarlo Simeoli-Niccolò Bertola) and Deas Sanfer (Pierluigi Capozzi-Alessio Brasili) sailing in a group between Ischia and Procida.

Three withdrawals have been recorded to date: Waving Meadow (Matteo Bandiera-Paola Alrcolin), stopping in Brindisi, Acone Associati (Nicola Brunotti-Michele Rinaldi) and Città di Genova (Francesco Renella-Valentina Fissore), both stopping in Agrigento.

According to the latest projections, the arrival of the first at the finish line in Genoa is expected on Tuesday afternoon.

The final act of the regatta will be the awards ceremony, scheduled for 4pm on Thursday 16 November at the Acquario di Genova in the presence of the Undersecretary of State for Defence, Senator Isabella Rauti who, as part of the ceremony, will greet the crew of Lo Spirito di Stella, leaving for an around the world trip as part of the WOW-Wheel On Waves 2023-2025 project.

We remind you that the Marina Militare Nastro Rosa Veloce is organized in close partnership between Difesa Servizi SpA, a company of the Ministry of Defense that deals with valorising the assets of the Armed Forces, and SSI Events, a company specialized in organizing international regattas. The Marina Militare supports the event as title partner. The record of the regatta, which at 1,492 nautical miles is by far the longest double-handed race in the Mediterranean, was set by Sophie Faguet and Pierre Lebouchers in 2021 with Team Urban Value and stands at 8d 8h 27m 23s.