British Class 40 rebranded

Marco Nannini's UniCredit readies for Route du Rhum

Following a three week refit at Endeavour Quay in Gosport, Marco Nannini's Akilaria Class40 was launched yesterday in her fresh UniCredit livery in preparation for the Route du Rhum starting on 31 October from St Malo.

The Route du Rhum is certainly one of the most important solo racing event on the calendar this year with over 75 boats already entered of which over half are Class40s making it the most numerous and battled of classes. For Marco it will be a debut in a major french race, an honour in itself to get to race among the gratest sailors of today.

The boat was lifted out straight after the Round Britain and Ireland Race where Marco and co-skipper Paul Peggs took second overall in one of the most closely fought editions of the race. The boat needed plenty of patient work to strip her back to her naked skin before the new graphics could be applied: all this would have been impossible without all the hard work Paul put in with impressive results.

This was also the occasion to address some little snags with the systems that had emerged during the RBI, a complete rewiring of the electrics was part of the job list to improve the efficiency of the use of electricity on board.

The new mainsails with UniCredit logos are also ready and this coming weekend it will be the first occasion to go out for some sea trials. The sails were designed and built by Di-Tech in Italy, run by Roberto Westermann who last year competed in the OSTAR which Marco also took part in. Roberto races an Open 40 and flew over earlier this year to measure and check the boat and has since proven to be an invaluable source of support and advice in the preparations for the Route du Rhum.

UniCredit will be seen strolling the Solent during Cowes Week. Later in August Marco will set off for the 1000 miles qualifier for the Route du Rhum.