The Nations Trophy at Yacht Club Costa Smeralda - Overall
by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda 24 Jun 2023 18:54 BST
19-24 June 2023
The gradually decreasing Mistral wind today allowed the fleet of Swan One Designs competing in The Nations Trophy to carry out one last windward-leeward race, with an early departure time of 11:00 to make the most of the light breeze that started at 8-9 knots and gradually decreased towards the end of the race.
Winners of the day in their respective classes were G Spot among the ClubSwan 36s, Pez de Abril in the ClubSwan 42 class while among the ClubSwan 50s it was Cuordileone who won today's race.
With a fourth first place finish today, Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio's G Spot confirmed its dominance of the Porto Cervo event in the ClubSwan 36 class. In fact, with this fourth victory di Lapigio's boat closed the event with a score of just 9 points while the second and third classified, namely Edoardo Ferragamo's Cuordileone and the Pavesio brothers' Fra Martina, both trailed with 18 points. Cuordileone won the tiebreak in virtue of her first place finish in the event's fifth race.
Giangiacomo Serena di Lapigio, owner/helmsman of G Spot: "We are very satisfied, not only for our victory in the event but also for the wide variety of conditions in which we raced. Porto Cervo always gives us positive surprises, and everyone knows the place is fantastic. The YCCS is particularly hospitable, so you feel at home".
In the ClubSwan 42 Class, Andrea Rossi's Mela, sailing with Enrico Zennaro as tactician, got the win over Nadir albeit on equal points. The Spanish boat suffered a penalty today which, combined with a fourth place finish today, put her on the second step of the podium. Third place for Jose Maria Meseguer's Pez de Abril thanks to a victory in today's race.
Andrea Rossi, owner/helmsman of Mela: "An exciting win, obtained on the wire after a tough week, which began with a 3-point penalty which made everything more difficult. But thanks to the tenacity of the entire crew we managed to slowly climb up the rankings to today's victory. The crew sailed very well, everything on board went perfectly. I thank the Race Committee for their professional management, especially yesterday when they managed to find a course suitable for us to enjoy with a strong Mistral blowing. Not to mention the scenery that only Porto Cervo can offer".
Marcus Brennecke's Hatari, sailing with Markus Wieser as tactician, dominated in the ClubSwan 50 Class, winning thanks to an excellent average score obtained from two first place finishes, two seconds and two thirds. A seventh place finish was discarded as the worst result. Ending the event in second and third places were Andrea Lacorte's Vitamina and Leonardo Ferragamo's Cuordileone with 25 and 26 points respectively.
The owner/helmsman of Hatari, Marcus Brennecke, declared: "It has been a fantastic week, I always like to sail here. The first time I came was in 1984 for a Sardinia Cup and I always return to Porto Cervo with great pleasure. We had a wide variety of winds and the coastal race in a strong Mistral allowed us to plane downwind at 26 knots, setting the speed record for our boat! The level of competition is very high, we won thanks to the consistency of our results, a reward for the preparation work done by a cohesive team where everyone contributes to their fullest and in which everyone feels at ease".
The Nations Trophy - Swan One Design is a biennial event that is of top importance for the ClubSwan fleets because the trophy is awarded to that nation with the best overall results obtained by its two best representative teams. In this edition, Italy prevailed thanks to the combined performance of the ClubSwan 50s Vitamina and Cuordileone. Second place for Germany with Hatari and Xai Vision while third place went to the Principality of Monaco thanks to the ClubSwan 36 G Spot and the ClubSwan 50 Moonlight. The score obtained in Porto Cervo will also be valid for the 2023 season of The Nations League circuit.
While striving to make its events ever more sustainable, the YCCS has obtained Gold Clean Regattas certification issued by Sailors for the Sea for The Nations Trophy - Swan One Design event. Among many other sustainability initiatives for this event MarkSetBot robotic buoys were used. These maintain their position thanks to GPS system mounted on an electric motor thus eliminating the need to be anchored to the seabed.
YCCS Commodore Michael Illbruck said during the awards ceremony: "I would like to thank all of you who came to race in Porto Cervo, especially Leonardo Ferragamo who chose the YCCS to celebrate 25 years since the acquisition of Nautor Swan and since the establishment of ClubSwan. Some of you may not have achieved the results you expected, but in the sport of sailing it is perhaps more important to know how to improve than to win. Our Club aims to be an open home to all sailors and Porto Cervo is an ideal place to race; many of you have told me that this past week was one of the most memorable ever. Porto Cervo offers such a wide variety of conditions as to make our regattas technically complete, so we are looking forward to welcoming you here again in the future, in even greater numbers".
The next regatta organized by the YCCS will be the Coppa Europa Smeralda 888 from July 6-9, 2023.
For further information please visit the YCCS website.