The Nations Trophy spreads its wings

Swan One Design fleet at Copa del Rey Mapfre © BMW / Studio Borlenghi

Following a hugely successful showing of the Swan One Design fleet at Copa del Rey Mapfre at the end of July, entries for The Nations Trophy have increased rapidly over the last few days.

Scheduled for 10 – 14 October and hosted by the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the event is the culmination of the Swan One Design Mediterranean season and incorporates the Swan 45 World Championship along with the ClubSwan 50 and ClubSwan 42 European Championships. The current entry list shows seven ClubSwan 50s, eight Swan 45s and five ClubSwan 42s. Germany, the first team confirmed as competing for the inaugural Nations Trophy, has been joined by Italy and Spain; France, the Netherlands, Russia and the UK are among other teams expected to be settled shortly.

Germany continue to look to be the form team. The country's best-performing ClubSwan 50, Earlybird, took her class at the Copa del Rey by 13 points from the Italian flagged, Cuordileone. Their fellow German Elena Nova had a more difficult time securing the Swan 45 class, but eventually pipped Negra, from Ecuador, by just one point. Both German yachts are continuing the early season form shown at SailRacing PalmaVela and the Giraglia Rolex Cup. In the ClubSwan 42 class Spanish entry Pez de Abril came top with Nadir, also from Spain, six points behind.

The Nations Trophy will be decided by a country's best performing boats from two of the three Swan One Design classes competing; consequently, it is not necessary to have boats in all three classes even though it may help. Italy is the one nation so far to have yachts competing across the three championship events: Cuordileone, which won her class at the Rolex Swan Cup Caribbean in March, and Ulika compete in the ClubSwan 50 Europeans, Thetis in the Swan 45 Worlds, and Far Star, Digital Bravo and Mela will compete for the ClubSwan 42 Europeans. All of the Italian yachts took part in the Copa del Rey achieving respectable results in all three fleets, particularly the ClubSwan 50.

Bernarda Franchi, sister of Digital Bravo's owner Alberto summed up the spirit The Nations Trophy, as a festival of Swan One Design and international team competition, is intended to ignite: "We really like sailing in One Design events because they give us the chance to grow and improve our skills," says Bernarda. "And, of course, we will be really proud to represent our country at The Nations Trophy". This is something Andrea Rossi of Mela endorses: "Sailing in One Design is just great. You get to learn a lot because you can see the differences right away between a well-done manoeuvre, and your errors. Personally, I'm really proud of sailing for my national flag, patriotism is instinctive, and we are very tied to our Italian flag!"

The inaugural Nations Trophy will be held in Palma de Mallorca from 10 – 14 October, 2017. It is open to all ClubSwan 50s and ClubSwan 42s, which will be competing for their European Championship and Swan 45s, contesting their World Championship. The Trophy will be awarded to the nation which has the lowest combined points overall. Scores will be based on the results of each nation's top two boats taken from two separate classes. Entries for The Nations Trophy close on Monday,15 September 2017.

Further details at thenationstrophy.com