Great time had at sea and ashore for participants in the Southern Wind Rendezvous
With a win on the final day of the Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in collaboration with title sponsor Giorgio Armani, YCCS member Juan Ball’s Swan 115 Moat claimed overall victory, two points ahead of the RP-Nauta 100 Morgana.
The east-southeasterly wind blowing between 12 and 15 knots, with gusts in excess of 20 knots, allowed both the Superyacht and Southern Wind Rendezvous divisions to comfortably complete the course set by the Race Committee: a counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the islands of Caprera and La Maddalena, returning to Porto Cervo via the La Maddalena channel and the Passo delle Bisce strait, for a total of approximately 26 miles. For yachts competing in the Southern Wind Rendezvous, the course was prudently shortened at the Secca di Tre Monti mark to avoid exposing crews to upwind waves in the last few miles before the finish.
The Superyachts set off on schedule with a reaching start at 11.30 a.m., followed by the boats taking part in the Southern Wind Rendezvous. Morgana got off to a good start, hot on the heels of the faster Moat on the long reaching leg that took them up to the north of La Maddalena island, however on the downwind leg to the finish line, the Swan 115 pulled further away from her closest rival to win by 2 minutes 47 seconds in corrected time.
Moat’s tactician, Guillermo Parada, commented on the final race: “Today was a challenging race, with a reaching start. Shortly before the start the breeze had strengthened considerably and so we hoisted a strong-wind gennaker, but then it settled back down to 11-12 knots and changing gennaker on these boats is lengthy and challenging, at the halfway mark we were slightly behind on corrected time, so we had to work hard upwind to recover. I would like to thank the crew and the owner of Moat, who made sure we had everything we needed for a good regatta, and I’m very happy to have won with this team.”
“We are satisfied with our performance today,” affirmed the owner of Morgana, “we had variable wind conditions and we were in the game for the whole of the reaching leg, on the upwind leg we lacked something, we will work on that. Even though we didn’t win, this is the most beautiful race course in the world, our thanks go to the YCCS and Giorgio Armani for the organisation, this was our second time taking part and we plan on coming back for the next edition.”
Juan Ball, owner of Moat, with the Silver Jubilee Cup for victory in the Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta.
Right: Giovanni Tamburi, Vice President of the YCCS Board of Directors, Anoushka Borghesi, Global Head of Public Relations
and Media for Giorgio Armani and Tommaso Sani, Special Project Manager for Giorgio Armani.
The prize-giving ceremony took place as usual in Piazza Azzurra, in front of the YCCS, led by Giovanni Tamburi, Vice President of the YCCS Board of Directors, and Anoushka Borghesi, Global Head of Public Relations and Media at Giorgio Armani.
The Silver Jubilee Cup for the winning yacht in the Superyacht Division was presented to Moat’s owner, YCCS member Juan Ball, by Tommaso Sani, Giorgio Armani Project Manager for Special Projects.
The Southern Wind Rendezvous saw prizes awarded by Giorgio Armani’s Anoushka Borghesi and Southern Wind CCO Andrea Micheli to the SW 96 Liberty for Best Performance, the SW 105 Kiboko for Best Boat Handling and the SW 96 Nyumba for Best SW Rendezvous Spirit. Finally the Willy Persico Trophy, in memory of the yard’s founder, went to the SW 100 Padma II.
The Southern Wind 105 Kiboko and the Southern Wind 96 Liberty
|
