A little over one month from the start of Palermo - Monte Carlo

The thrilling glance at a huge fleet of racing boats off the Gulf of Mondello, waiting for the big event. The joy of sharing a route that crosses all the Mediterranean Sea, symbolically uniting Italy with France. All this and much more is the Palermo-Montecarlo, the regatta organized by the Circolo della Vela Sicilia in collaboration with Yacht Club de Monaco and Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, with the support of the Sicilian Region through its Sport, Tourism and Entertainment department, the promotional activity through SEESICILY intervention, the partnership of the Metropolitan City of Palermo, and the support of the partners Fondazione Sicilia, Porsche Assistance Center Palermo and Tasca d'Almerita, a regatta which will start on August 19th from Mondello.

The Palermo-Montecarlo is an event conceived by the club chaired by Agostino Randazzo, engaged alongside the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team in the next challenge at the America's Cup, which this year will represent the absolute debut of Ambrogio Beccaria's new racing boat, the Class 40 “Alla” Grande. 30 years old, from Milano, Beccaria became in November 2019 the first Italian skipper to win a great ocean classic race like the Mini Transat, a success that kicked off this new project. The key names of the project are those of the designer Gianluca Guelfi and the builder Edoardo Bianchi, founder of Sangiorgio Marine, the shipyard of Genoa that is building the boat, of Pirelli, main and lead sponsor of the project, and of Mapei, global sponsor of Alla Grande.

It is a fully Italian challenge that will move its first steps racing the Palermo-Montecarlo, absolute debut before facing an intense program of ocean races. "Even if Alla Grande was born for the ocean", explains Beccaria from the Sangiorgio Marine shipyards where he is busy with the boat building last stages, "it seemed right that a boat with such an italian soul should make its debut in our sea, the Mediterranean. And there is no better regatta than the Palermo-Montecarlo, which for almost twenty years has promoted offshore sailing in our sea. It's a debut for me too: it's the first time I take part in this regatta, and I'm happy to do it onboard Alla Grande”.

At the moment there are about 40 crews registered in the Palermo-Montecarlo 2022. And among these the home team of the Circolo della Vela Sicilia could not miss. After last year exploit and the double victory of the Trophy arrived Challenge Angelo Randazzo (IRC group) and the overall ORCi group, this year the same team will race onboard the brand new Neo 570C Carbonita, launched last May and owned by the Greek owner Manolis Kondilis. There are many expectations about the participation of this home team, a crew built with the talents from the club of Palermo skippered by Edoardo Bonanno. This project is the result of the collaboration between CVS and Paolo Semeraro's Neo Yachts shipyard, with the support of the sponsor Caronte & Tourist.

On board, in addition to the boys of the home club, there will be other champions of Italian sailing such as the tactician Tommaso Chieffi, Semeraro himself, who will be co-skipper of the boat, Gaetano Figlia di Granara, Diego Battisti and Alberto Fantini. "It will be a great challenge, because after the success of last year there is a lot of expectation around our participation, we have raised the level further higher. and we are ready to give our all again to bring home a good result", explains Edoardo Bonanno. “Ours will be a crew made up of professionals and recognized champions which will be joined by members of our home club, it’s the right mix to face a regatta like the Palermo-Montecarlo. The brand new NEO 570 will make its debut on regatta with this test, which makes us proud and curious. I'm sure we have all what it takes to defend last year's result with a very performing boat."

Also noteworthy is the presence of the well-known French ocean navigator Kito de Pavant on the Class 40 HBF Reforest’action, of the Italian sailor Andrea Caracci, skipper of Solano, of the French crew of Tonnerre de Glen skipper by Dominique Tian and of Christian Kerl’s Class 40, Blue Planet. The rendez vous is for 19 August, at midday in the Gulf of Mondello, for the start of a regatta that is also stage of the Italian Offshore Championship organized by the Italian Sailing Federation, the Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge organized by the International Maxi Association and stage of the Class40 Mediterranean Trophy.