Tomorrow will be the first day of racing at the first edition of the Italia Yachts Sailing Week (IYSW), organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in collaboration with the Italia Yachts boatyard under the patronage of the Italian Sailing Federation (FIV - Federazione Italiana Vela). There are 15 boats signed up for the event that will see racing in Porto Cervo until Saturday, June 18th.

Races will begin Thursday, June 16th and will see the Italia Yachts fleet sailing for the first time along coastal courses that will wind through the islands and spectacular scenery of the La Maddalena arcipelago.

In the racing fleet we have Enzo De Blasio’s Scugnizza, a frequent winner, and Ott Kikkas’ Sugar 3, both IY 11.98s that are frequent competitors in other regattas and will fight it out to the end here. Scugnizza, Sugar 3 and Giulia, the IY 9.98 owned by Rudolf Vrestal, along with the IY.98s ToBe and Batanga owned by Stefano Rusconi and Guido Enrico Tabellini respectively, will be racing at this event with an eye on using it to train for the upcoming ORC World Championship that will be held in these same waters next week, from June 22 to 30th. Orsa Maggiore, an Italian Navy’s training vessel, will also be in Porto Cervo for the Italia Yachts Sailing Week.

Michael Illbruck, Commodore of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, had these words: “We are happy to welcome all the owners for this first edition of the Italia Yachts Sailing Week. We’re expecting three days of friendly and convivial racing and we wish fair winds to all!”

Daniele De Tullio, an expert sailor and CEO of Italia Yachts said: “We’re very happy to see some of our most competitive yachts here, yachts that get excellent results in the foremost national and international offshore regattas, but I’m even happier to see so many owners who have never raced before participating in this event held in such a stunning spot. We will be here to support them and encourage them to continue racing, even if their team is made up of friends and family and their setup is geared more to cruising than to racing, like the boats in our Bellissima series, because racing can be great fun.”