Barcolana 51 Presented by Generali - Preview

Barcolana 51 © Barcolana

51 years ago, 47 boats raced in the first Barcolana regatta. Held every second Sunday of October in Trieste, Italy, the Barcolana Presented by Generali is ready to go with two weeks remaining before the first event and less than a month until the large regatta. The official introduction, organized with the presenting sponsor Generali, is scheduled for September 25 in Trieste.

After the success of Barcolana 50 in 2018 and the entry into the Guinness World Record as the Largest Sailing Race in the World - a real turning point for the event - Barcolana 51 Presented by Generali offers to the public a renewed format on land and many protagonists in the sea. It starts with the calendar: the large festival in Trieste will start on October 2 this year and will contain 12 consecutive days of events that ends with in the large regatta on Sunday October 13. The centre of the festival will be for the first time in Trieste at Piazza dell'Unità and from Friday October 4 it will become ground zero of the Barcolana. With a larger space to present expositions and host the events on land, the main objective of the new location is to guarantee improved accessibility to the public and provide more experiences to live the event to the fullest. In the sea on Sunday October 13, the large challenge will take place: We are waiting for the list of maxi yachts that will race for the line honour - but announced at the moment is Quattro Team that will race for the victory, of which one is from Slovenia. Above all we are waiting for the big names in racing to arrive in Trieste, ready to immerse themselves in the spirit of the event, starting with the testimonial of the Barcolana51, the English sailor Dee Caffari.

At the press conference in Ljubljana, organized at the Headquarters of the Olympic Museum, thanks to the collaboration with ZSSD - Union of Slovenian sports associations in Italy - the president of the Barcolana, Mitja Gialuz presented in particular the new edition of the Go To Barcolana By Kempinski Palace. The Slovenian partner of the Barcolana, after the success of 2018, has renewed the agreement with the event and will be the sponsor of the regatta-rally, leading the Slovenian crews Saturday October 12 to Trieste. This event is characterized by a great atmosphere of celebration and warm reception by the Slovenian community in Italy. "In Ljubljana, we close our international race presentation roadshow that began in May" said Mitja Gialuz. "Internationalization is essential for the development of Barcolana and this year, thanks to many partners - illy, Generali, Turismo FVG, Gruppo TAL and now Kempinski Palace Portoroz - we are able to promote our regatta abroad. Last year the Go To Barcolana was very successful and we are proud to host the crews in a context of great friendship and we are committed to repeating this great experience."

"Last year's 50th Barcolana and Go to Barcolana from Slovenia regattas were a great success, so the decision to continue to support the project was an easy one. Supporting sports and local community is something we strive for at our hotel. I must emphasize that supporting sports and all local communities, where we are present as a group, is also one of the key orientations of our owners, the MK Group, which also includes the coastal airport Aerodrom Portorož. The aim is not to support individual projects, but to invest fully in the development of Portorož and the seaside, and to improve quality in all aspects. We, at Kempinski and MK Group, are convinced that supporting the world's most prestigious regatta is a step in the right direction" said Petra Zierer, Marketing and PR Manager at Kempinski Palace Portorož.

The challenge for Line Honour - Returning to the Barcolana, less than a month away, the initial information on the participating teams is coming to light. The most recent information, as far as the organizers know, is that there are at least four crews this year that are gathering resources and that are organizing to conquer the line honour of the Barcolana51 Presented by Generali.

The team defender, the Fast and Furio Sailing Team, is made up of Furio and Gabriele Benussi, Lorenzo Bressani, Alberto Bolzan, Stefano Spangaro, i.e. "dream team", were protagonists in the victory of 2018. In the coming days it will become clear the boat that they will take: it could be the Morning Glory, the winning hull of the past two years, or the Wild Thing, the boat that nominally won in 2005 with the name "Skandia - Trieste Province of...", completely modified and now 100 feet long, at the start of a four year program. In the water, there will also be the e-CQS, the hull that just last year challenged the defender and came in second place. Owned by the Australian Ludde Ingvall, the hull is already at the Marina Hannibal and the Tempus Fugit Sailing Team, who brought it to the Adriatic in 2018, will be onboard, with Mitja Kosmina, Andrea Visintini, Andrea Casale, Enrico Zennaro, Antonio Masoli, Marco Furlan, and they are ready for an upset this year. It looks like the Trieste Rambler will also be leaving for Trieste, the 90-foot hull that in 2003 and 2004 won the Barcolana with Neville Crichton: the boat and the team will be entrusted to sailor Francesca Clapchich who is organizing an international crew. Finally, among the teams that aim for excellence, there is also the Slovenian EWOL Sailing Team which confirmed its participation in the Barcolana on a Maxi yacht but are still deciding which hull to use: the doubts will be resolved by the team leader Gašper Vincec within a week.

The Barcolana also presented today to the Slovenia press the Barcolana 51 poster. Illy, who handles the artistic direction, chose illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli - who recently designed the cover for the prestigious New Yorker magazine - to recount the emotion of the Barcolana, shared last year by 300,000 people in Trieste and around the world by thousands of sailing enthusiasts.

The 2019 poster is an invitation to visit Trieste and to be a protagonist, in the sea and on land. The poster shows an image of the Gulf of Trieste towered over by the Miramare Castle - a popular tourist destination - and filled with a fleet of sailing boats ready to race. In the foreground stands a lovely flower symbolizing both the beauty and vulnerability of our seas and its ecosystem which must be protected.