The big one

1,900 boats expected for this weekend's Barcolana, among them the Skandia maxi and the new Coutts 44

More than 1,000 boats have already berthed in Trieste, Italy to take part in the 37th edition of the Barcolana, and about 900 more are expected to come by Sunday 9 October. They will all be together at the start line, one and a half miles long. The Barcolana is the most crowded mass start regatta in the world, an appointment which attracts professional sailors, huge yachts (Australia’s Skandia Wild Thing has already been tipped as the winner) and many sailing enthusiasts coming from Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro. Trieste has already enforced the hospitality plan: by Sunday more than 250thousand people will be in town to participate in the race or to follow it from land.

Australia’s maxi Yacht Skandia has been chartered for the event by a group of sailors from Triest. At the helm will be the winner of the last Copa Del Rey and IMS World champion, Lorenzo Bressani. For the Barcolana the yacht’s name will be Trieste Provincia di... - and it is the favourite. The main opponents are Maxi Jena, 84ft Slovenian yacht with Mitja Kosmina at the helm and Italy’s Ourdream (winner of this year’s Giraglia Rolex Cup and Trofeo dei Due Golfi.

But the most awaited is the yacht on display on land: it is the new 44ft prototype designed by Russell Coutts: the boat is shown for the first time in the world in Trieste. The RC 44 was built with the aim to organise a circuit of these 44ft one design boats; the first prototype produced is on display from today until Sunday in Trieste.

The shape of the Barcolana race course is a triangle (two buoys in Italian waters, one in Slovenian waters) of about 16 miles: its peculiarity and success are linked to the fact that competitors, divided into categories according to the boat’s length, start altogether. Victory in the last two Barcolana was clinched by Neville Crichton with his maxi Alfa Romeo.