More sailing news

Following four days of intense racing, Rick Devos’s REV clinched their first title as M32 Corinthian World Champions, silently sweeping the fleet and sailing a tremendously consistent event in Chicago, IL. Mirroring the accomplishment, ChinaOne.Ningbo walked away as 2018 M32 Overall World Champions, defending their title from last year with a commanding twenty-point lead.

Quantum Racing may have won the 2018 52 SUPER SERIES championship title, but unsailable light winds on the last day of the 52 SUPER SERIES Valencia Sailing Week denied them the chance to pitch for their fourth regatta win of the season. Luna Rossa, the Italian America’s Cup challengers of record, lift the Valencia regatta title, which they add to the Zadar Royal Cup, which they won in Croatia in June.

After three days of racing, the seventh edition of the Perini Navi Cup drew to a close today. The event, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, had gathered 21 yachts from the Perini Navi fleet in Porto Cervo. Overall leader in the Cruiser Racer division was the 50-metre Silencio, while The Maltese Falcon triumphed among the Corinthians Spirit yachts and overall.

Five years ago an old OK Dinghy was dragged out of a garden in southern France and given a makeover. Soon it was joined by another and then another, and what followed was the amazingly successful revival of the Mediterranean OK Dinghy fleet with many former and new sailors joining the class. Two years ago they initiated the Mediterranean Championship at Bandol, an indicator of the growing interest and potential of this fledging fleet. Then, on the back of all this, and to support the growth, they were offered the chance of hosting the 2018 European Championship, which begins next week.

The 23rd running of Europe’s largest and longest-running superyacht regatta, The Superyacht Cup Palma, will be held on Palma Bay, Mallorca, from 19–22 June 2019, the annual gathering again set to be a magnet attracting yacht owners, their friends, captains, crews and sponsors to the idyllic setting both on and off the water.

The quays of Porto Cervo are bustling as a fleet of superyachts arrives for the seventh edition of the Perini Navi Cup, an event organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in collaboration with the prestigious Perini Navi shipyard.

The final day of the 20th edition of the Rolex Swan Cup decreed the winners in each of the six categories that the fleet of 110 boats from 17 nations was divided into. The winners were: Plis-Play in the Maxi Class, Solte in the Grand Prix division and Six Jaguar in the Sparkman & Stephens Class. The ClubSwan 50 world champion is OneGroup while the world championship title in the Swan 45 Class went to Porron IX. The ClubSwan 42 Mela won the class European championship.

Light winds on the GC32 Villasimius Cup’s final day may not have provided the same top speed foiling action of the previous three days, but there was high drama across the leaderboard during today’s three races with first place changing twice and third place swapping. Out on the bay off Marina di Villasimius, the 5-7 knot wind started off in the east-southeast before veering south-southeast for the last two races made for particularly tricky racing.

The third day of racing at the Rolex Swan Cup welcomed the typical Mediterranean conditions that the Costa Smeralda is famous for the world over: clear skies, sunshine and a light wind that built from just 6 knots in the morning to more than 16 over the course of the day. Ideal conditions for a regatta that gathers as many professional sailing teams as passionate amateurs in Porto Cervo, every two years, for an unmissable event.

The new owner of Nandor Fa’s IMOCA, the Belgian skipper, Denis Van Weynbergh hopes to be able to compete in the Globe Series and reach a climax by taking part in the 2020 Vendée Globe. While for a long time, he has divided up his life between being head of a company and ocean racing, he is now dedicating all his time to his IMOCA project with the aim of becoming the first Belgian sailor to complete the Vendée Globe. He recently launched a highly original, artistic crowd-funding campaign. We met up with him to find out more.