Barcolana update

Big boats arrive in Trieste as the classics get into gear

With four days to go until the start of the world's biggest mass start regatta, the Barcolana in Trieste, 822 participants are now registered. The big boats are coming to Trieste, where the waterfront is filled with boats moored a few steps away from piazza dell'Unità d'Italia.

"We missed both the Barcolana and Trieste" said Neville Crichton, owner and skipper of Alfa Romeo, who has already won the regatta twice in 2003 and 2004. "We are ready to clinch the third victory and we are coming to Trieste determined and strongly motivated after our triumph in the Maxi Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo. We have already sailed against Maximus in Sardinia, our rival in Trieste, and we won, but every race is a different story. Both maxis have the potentials and the technology to sail in an exciting way".

The first races for five of Russell Coutts' new RC44s was held in the Alfa Spider Match Cup off Trieste today (read the report here). Tomorrow other four fleet races will take place. On Friday and Saturday the match-race finals.

Music and classics

While the sailing in this week before the Barcolana is already underway, tomorrow will see the first concerts of Vodafone Barcolana Music. In piazza Unità d'Italia, at 21.30, the first of the three concerts will be that of the Afterhours, one of the most original bands of Italian alternative-rock. Sixteen years of experimentation and transformation, led the group of Manuel Agnelli at the top of Italian bands, playing from rock to hard-core.

Meanwhile 20 historic, classic and spirit of tradition yachts will sail, with racing organised by the Società Velica Barcola Grignano together with Y.C.Adriaco.

Famous boats taking part include the cutter, Sorella built in 1858 and Bat designed by Carlo Sciarelli. Other boats will include Roberta III and Moya, and a type local to the Gulf of Trieste, the typical 'caiccio' launched in 1921 and always present in the Barcolana, to Nababbo II, a faithful reconstruction of the Passeras from Losinj sailed by thousands of sailors, among them Tino Straulino.

Also among the boats is Aria, an elegant fully restored 8 metre and Galeb, the 6 metre on which the famous Slovenian ballet dancers Pia and Pino Mlakar, star of Zurich theatre, have cruised for 60 years before donating the boat to the maritime museum of Piran. Then there is Vertue XXXV, an eight-metre yacht on which in 1950 British Humphery Barton crossed the Atlantic and Jardine, on which in 1982 Alessandro Sternini sailed round the world. Isabella and Angelica IV are among the most beautiful boats designed by Carlo Sciarelli, who died recently and to whom this regatta is dedicated.

Match racing

The sport club Và Pensiero of Parma won the Fuorivento Trophy beating in the final match-race I Girasoli from Trieste. For the third year in a row international sailors and youngsters with mental disabilities from all over Italy participated in the race organized by regional office of the Associazione Nazionale delle Polisportive per l'Integrazione Sociale and by Marina San Giusto Yacht Club.

Ten crew from the Polisportiva Fuoric'entro will be on board of the famous Il Moro di Venezia tomorrow and Sunday for the Barcolana, helped by a team skippered by Marco Bodini, Tornado Olympic sailor in Sydney, together with the President of the Province Maria Teresa Bassa Poropat.