Everything in place for the 2017 Rolex Giraglia Cup
by Yacht Club Italiano 14 May 2017 12:14 BST
9-17 June 2017
Giraglia Rolex Cup © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi
The Giraglia Rolex Cup, which celebrates its 65th edition in 2017, will soon get underway. The event, sponsored by Rolex and organised by the Yacht Club Italiano and the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez with support from the Yacht Club de France, the Yacht Club Sanremo and the Cercle Nautique et Touristique du Lacydon will be held from June 9th to 17th.
The Giraglia Rolex Cup will begin with races from Sanremo and Marseille to Saint-Tropez on June 9th, followed by three days of inshore competition in the bay of Saint-Tropez from June 11th to 13th. This before embarking on the famous 243nm race from Saint-Tropez to Genoa via the Giraglia rock, Corsica. Boats participating in the Giraglia, the Med's most famous bluewater race, will leave Saint-Tropez on June 14th and arrive in Genoa at the Yacht Club Italiano's clubhouse in Porticciolo Duca degli Abruzzi. The awards ceremony will be held on Saturday, June 17th.
The Giraglia Rolex Cup is truly a classic event. As legend has it, the race was created on an evening in December 1952 when Beppe Croce, President of Yacht Club Italiano, René Levainville, President of Yacht Club de France, and Franco Gavagnin were enjoying a long dinner in a Parisian bistro. They envisioned the race from Saint-Tropez to Genoa as a challenge between yachts that could also be seen as a challenge between Italy and France that would favour relations after the Second World War.
For the first edition of the Giraglia Cup in 1953 there were twenty-two boats at the start. The number of participants grew steadily and in 1997 the event changed its name with the arrival of an important sponsor to become the Giraglia Rolex Cup. In 1998 lo Yacht Club de France began organizing three days of races in the Gulf of Saint-Tropez before passing this part of the event on to the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez in 2002.
Today, the Giraglia Rolex Cup has exceeded its founder's expectations to become a must-do event that attracts hundreds of crews, both amateur and professional, and all kinds of yachts from all around the world. Serious competition on the water is followed by serious fun in the evening, thanks to the title sponsor. The YCI's sponsor BMW will be on hand to offer courtesy cars to participants in the event. There are already well over 180 boats registered for the 2017 edition and the roster shows registration numbers from all over Europe, Russia, the United States, New Zealand and even Hong Kong.
Yachts wishing to compete in this Mediterranean classic can register at www.yachtclubitaliano.it/it/regate/tutte-le-regate/giraglia-rolex-cup