The 11th Viareggio Gathering of Historical Sailboats ended on Sunday October 11, 2015 after three days of regattas. This end-of-season event was organized by the Associazione Vele Storiche Viareggio in collaboration with the Club Nautico Versilia and the Italian Vintage Sailboat Association – AIVE. Approximately 50 vintage and classic vessels participated. The 1975 Valentina won the overall and category classifications as well as the Sangermani Trophy reserved for wooden boats built by the famous Ligurian shipyard. And the prize? A 10-kilo prosciutto ham.
The Valentina has come a long way from when in 1982 she sank in 240 metres during a regatta on Lake Geneva and was believed lost forever. But the 11-meter ‘Valentina’ (ITA 70) built in 1975 out of mahogany and Irish Oak by the Sangermani shipyard in Liguria and designed by Gary Mull, an American, was saved. Since 1997 she has been owned by the Pavese family of Milan and has participated in, and won, many regattas. It happened once again this year when the Valentina won both the match race (beating an adversary in real time) and the category competition. In addition to the Tuscan Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) 10-kilo prosciutto ham, the Valentina was also awarded the prestigious ‘Sangermani Trophy’ by Cesare Sangermani in person. This Bermudan-rigged sloop belongs to the 6-Metre International tonnage class- a regatta category dating back to the early 1900s. The crew consisted of Luigi and Filippo Pavese, the helmsman and mainsail trimmer, as well as the tailer Filippo Domenicali and the bowman Luca Ambrosini. Valentina, favored by the light breezes, won all three regattas.
BAMBA, TILLY XV… AND THE SANGERMANI FLEET
Valentina’s adversaries in the match race were Guido Tommasi of Milan’s 8-Metre international tonnage Bamba (1927) back on the water after a 4 year-long restoration by the Pezzini Shipyards of Viareggio, and Siegfried Rittler’s Tilly XV, a Sonder Class gaff rigged vessel.
Also competing was the training boat Capricia, a 1963 Bermudan yawl donated in 1993 to Italy’s Navy by Gianni Agnelli. The gaff rigged ketch Valdora (1935) arrived from Palermo, after sailing for 60 hours. From the Sangermani fleet were the Bufeo Blanco (1963), Chin Blu III (1965), Danae (1955), Ella (1960), Leticia do Sol (1958), Namib (1966) and of course the Valentina (1975).
NAMIB AND VISTONA WIN THE HANDICAP RACE
In handicap racing the winner in the “Classic” group was the 11-meter Namib, a 1966 Sangermani Bermuda-rigged sloop, followed by Chin Blu III (1965) and Madifra II (1974). The winner in the “Vintage” group was the 1937 gaff-rigged cutter Vistona, with Ilda and Margaret, (1925) an 8-meter international tonnage vessel, coming in close behind. Shipowner Gian Battista Borea d’Olmo won a voucher for a launching and docking at the Scarlino Marina.
MATCH RACING (REAL TIME) WINNERS
CR1 Class – 1st Maria Vittoria, 2nd Madifra II, 3rd Gioconda
EC1 Class – 1st Valentina, 2nd Tilly XV, 3rd Bamba
EC2 Class – 1st Chin Blu III, 2nd Namib, 3rd Vistona
EC3 Class – 1st Ilda, 2nd Forban V, 3rd Nausicaa of Harwich
EC4 Class – 1st Mariaganciona, 2nd Trilla, 3rd Scilla
All participants celebrated the victories, among them the new president of the Viareggio Historic Sailboat Association, the Florentine Gianni Fernandes who together with his wife Patrizia Cioni owns the 11 meter 1946 Ilda and often participates in vintage sailboat gatherings.
For three days the 400 crew members in Viareggio crowded the wharfs of the Club Nautico Versilia and attended the many events offered, from visits to boats being restored at the Del Carlo shipyard in Viareggio – that hosted a dinner Saturday night where guests feasted on a just-caught 60-kilo amberjack – to an art exhibition of water colors by the Genoese artist Emanuela Tenti and of sailboat photographs by Marco Trainotti.
EXHIBIT ON ANTARCTIC NAVIGATOR AJMONE CAT
Of note was the lovely exhibition dedicated to the Antarctic voyages of navigator and explorer Commander Giovanni Ajmone Cat, who died in 2007. Footage documenting his two epic Antarctic voyages from the late 1960s and early 1970s on the 16-meter motorized sailboat “San Giuseppe Due” was shown. In attendance were the exhibition’s curator Andrea Cafà and Tito Mancini and Giancarlo Fede, Italian Navy helmsman and wireless operator, who were on the Italy – Antarctic round trip voyage.
WINNERS OF THE VIAREGGIO HISTORIC SAILBOATS TROPHY
The Viareggio Historic Sailboats Trophy was awarded to two sailboats: ‘Tilly XV’, built in Germany in 1912 for Prince Heinrich Von Preussen, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia’s brother, and to ‘Vistona’. A special dedication was made in honor of Luca Sonnino Sorisio, the young editor of the magazine Nautica, who died recently. The Vistona’s owner, Gian Battista Borea d’Olmo, for many years in charge of the Porto Rotondo Marina, had in fact supported the magazine and the Costa Smeralda Yacht Club’s 1982 first gathering of Mediterranean vintage sailboats in the waters of Porto Rotondo and Porto Cervo.
CIONI PRIZE GOES TO THE STAR CLASS TRILLA
Prizes were awarded to the Del Carlo Shipyards, the Port Authority of Viareggio and the Versilia Nautical Club, headed by Roberto Righi. The Amerigo Vespucci Hometown Committee (Amerigo Vespucci a Casa Sua) awarded a prize to the 1966 Nausicaa of Harwich for having sailed over 3,000 miles in the Mediterranean this year. The 16-meter 1964 Namar was awarded a weekend pass at the Hotel Plaza e de Russie in Viareggio. The Maria Grazia Cioni Prize, given to the crew that best embodies a spirit of family attachment to a sailboat, went to the Swiss Laimberger Brizzi family for their Trilla, a 1961 Abeking & Rasmussen Star Class sailboat that was restored by the winners.
ELEGANCE ….AND ALL WOMEN CREWS
The 1931 Patience won two important prizes: the ‘Il Bisonte’ one for being the most elegant sailboat and a month of free mooring given by Scarlino Marina and Camper & Nicholsons Yachts who both launched the idea of holding a vintage boat regatta to be held in Scarlino in 2016. Azimut Investimenti awarded a vintage compass, similar to those used by Royal Navy cadets, to the 1947 Capitan Lipari artist-sailor sailboat. The 8-woman crew of the 1935 Oenone, owned by Enrico Zaccagni, former president and current Commodore of the Viareggio Historic Sailboat Association, won the Rose Barni Prize for having the highest number of female crew. The 1900 motorized sailboat Rescator, the oldest participating vessel, was awarded special recognition by the committees that worked on this 11th Viareggio Gathering of Historic Sailboats.
