The winner this year of “The Mediterranean’s Most Beautiful Yacht Race” is the 26 metre schooner LELANTINA built in 1937.
It was the third time she has taken home “The Sword of Admiral Satan”, top prize in Camper and Nicholsons Trophee Bailli de Suffren www.bdsrace.com. But first over the line in Malta was a yacht whose designer probably would not have recommended her ever even being in the race at all, the 28 metre, gaff-rigged MARISKA built in 1908, designed a a day racer and still sailing without winches and steered with a tiller
The 600 mile Trophée Bailli du Suffren is run every year over three legs, this year Saint-Tropez – Porto Rotondo (Sardinia) – Trapani (Sicily) – Malta. Known simply as “The Bailli”, the race is for classic yachts only, this year attracting 25 of the most beautiful including the 63 metre, three masted schooner ATLANTIC who was in a race-within-a-race with the 51 metre , two-masted schooner ELENA settling a score that goes back to 1928 when their namesakes battled in a a trans-Atlantic race from New York to Santander. In the Bailli yachts enter two classes: “Vintage” and “Classic” with a CIM rating and “Spirit of Tradition” rating under IRC.
The Bailli event takes its name as well as its start and finish locations from the 18th century French admiral, Pierre André de Suffren de Saint-Tropez, who spent his early career in Malta where he received the title of “Bailli de Suffren” from the Knights of St John. Known among his sailors and his enemies, most notably the British, as “Admiral Satan”, he still enjoys a reputation in his native France that is comparable to Horatio Nelson’s in Britain. His statue stands on the quay in Saint-Tropez.
This year’s fleet also included ROWDY, a 20 metre sloop built in 1916, MOONBEAM III and MOONBEAM IV built in 1903 and 1914 respectively, and 17 metre AMADOUR built in 1938.
The race is officiated by the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez who also organises the Voiles de Saint-Tropez.
A full collection of amazing photos can be found at the
Camper & Nicholsons Marinas Trophée Bailli de Suffren 2013 Flickr page: PHOTOS
© Kurt Arrigo / CAMPER & NICHOLSONS
