City of Split wins the Alpe Adria Sailing Tour

Holmberg in BMW Tomic fails to close the gap on final leg and finishes second overall

After twenty days of racing from Venice, Italy to Dubrovnik, Croatia, on the Dalmatian Coast, the boat City of Split, driven by Ivan Kuret wins the first edition of the Alpe Adria Sailing Tour 2003 with 94h06’58”, a competition which is raced with the new fleet of boats, the Solaris 36 OD, built by the Se.Ri.Gi. shipyard of Aquileia.

City of Split, fourth in the last leg Makarska-Dubrovnik (84) miles which was won by the boat City of Aquileia, conserved a good advantage of 12’50” over BMW Tomic with the America’s Cup skipper, Peter Holmberg at the wheel. Holmberg arrived third in the race today.

The Alpe Adria Sailing Tour victory podium is completed by the Croatian team of Scor
(helmed by Darko Hajdinjak) who, arriving in second place today and taking advantage of the poor results of the Barcolana boat, took over third place. Barcolana takes a step backwards and consolidates it’s fourth place ranking in front of Marco Augelli’s City of Aquileia in fifth place and Clementei in sixth.

In the decisive leg, BMW Tomic tried to desperately gain on the leader by staying ahead of the fleet for more than two thirds of the race, but wind conditions being poor, it was not a lucky break for the team. The advantage of the leader of BMW Tomic was closed in only to 12’50”.



At the first mark during the race, at Korcula (at about 32 miles from the start), the first boat to take the lead was Magic Sailing Team, driven by Mitjia Kosmina, followed by City of Split and BMW Tomic. At the second mark, in front of Olipa, City of Aquileia took a lead and stayed ahead of the fleet until the very end of the race, thus leading the twelve twin boats Solaris 36 OD.

Among some good results are always the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, driven by Marco Sartori (8th in the last leg), who came in tenth position in the over all results, right after the girls team Val Nautika (skippered by Sabrina Breda, well known lawyer) who were among the most loved and cheered of all the teams.

Thursday, in the old city of Dubrovnik is the last of the promotional races, and maybe one of the most anticipated, the “Playboy Cup”, following this race will be the awards ceremony and the gala dinner in the Revelin Castle, these events will officially close the first Alpe Adria Sailing Tour.

Order of arrival in the last leg:
1. Citta di Aquileia 23h19’04”
2. Scor Team 23h20’11”
3. BMW Tomic 23h36’47”
4. Città di Spalato 23h43’47”
5. Magi sailing Team 23h45’26”
6. Dubrovnik 23h58’31”
7. Alcatel 24h00’46”
8. FVG 24h06’22
9. Sibenik 24h07’09”
10. Clementei 24h07’17”
11. Val Nautika 24h08’34“
12. Barcolana 24h20’36”

Over all results after ten legs:
1. Città di Spalato 94h06’58”
2. BMW Tomic 94h19’48”
3. Scor Team 95h41’59”
4. Barcolana 95h51’13”
5. Città di Aquileia 96h07’08”
6. Clementei 97h07’41”
7. Magic Sailing Team 98h08’19”
8. Alcatel 99h21’06”
9. Val Nautika 101h15’02”
10. FVG 101h15’01”
11. Dubrovnik 104h22’45”
12. Sibenik 106h13’31”