This is how classic boats turned San Remo into the capital of the sea

The city of San Remo from May 29-31 became the capital of vintage sails with the first edition of the “Great International Regattas,” a prestigious event organized by the San Remo Yacht Club in which hulls from all over the world took part.

The Great International Regattas in San Remo

A prestigious event that combines competition and maritime culture, sporting passion and naval tradition. This is the spirit of the “Great International Regattas,” an event entirely dedicated to vintage boats that took place May 29-31 in the waters of western Liguria.

leggi anche

Winning a world championship in your own land is a crazy thrill. Right Magdalena?

The event, in its first official edition, was organized by the San Remo Yacht Club, which celebrates 105 years of history this year, in collaboration with the Cape Verde Sailing Club, the Italian Sailing Federation and the Italian Vintage Sails Association (AIVE). The “Great International Regattas” have also been included among the 2025 events of the Liguria European Region of Sport, a kind of European capital of sport that helps strengthen Liguria’s visibility internationally.

An incredible fleet of elegant “ladies of the sea”

The true queens of the Ligurian event were the vintage boats and classic yachts divided by the race committee into the Vintage, Classic, Open, Classic IOR, Sangermani and Swan groupings, according to their characteristics, size and year of launching. All boats were engaged in three days of competition, valid for both the AIVE regattas of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the prestigious CIM (International Committee of the Mediterranean) Championship, a true reference for the seasonal vintage boat calendar.

So many famous hulls that have made the history of Italian and international sailing. Such as the auric cutter “Vistona” of 1937, the Sangermani “Masa Yume”, “Oliria” and “Sandra” of 1972, the “Tuiga” of 1909 that belonged to Prince Albert of Monaco; and then again “Crivizza” from 1966 with AIVE president Gigi Rolandi on board, “Greylag” from 1932, the first “Moro di Venezia” built in wood in 1976, “Pilgrim” by Emmanuele Dalla Vecchia (son of the late Pippo Dalla Vecchia president of the Circolo Savoia in Naples) and the 1987 Swan “Ron Holland Triboulet” from the Yacht Classic RH fleet. Also present was the Navy’s fleet of vintage hulls with three historic boats used for training students: the two splendid 60-year-old “Stella Polare” and “Penelope” and “Tarantella,” a 1969 boat designed by Sparkman & Stephens and recently restored.

leggi anche

Monotype gathering more than 70 boats at the Worlds after 30 years

Culinary challenges and convivial side events

The 13th edition of “Sailing & Flavors,” a tasty challenge combining sailing art and gastronomy, was also held on May 30. Crews, in fact, during the regatta, must prepare a dish with an assigned theme. A specialized jury evaluates the culinary creations, assigning scores that are added to the results of the sailing competition. In short, a perfect combination of seafaring passion and gastronomic art. In addition to the regattas, the “Great International Regattas” program included aperitifs in Bresca Square for the racers, then the awards ceremony and then the final dinner with all the crews with a concert and fireworks.

“Events such as this bring back splendid examples of naval art, historic shipyards and shipwrights, but also an elegant way of sailing, an extremely lively passion and a world of values that it is right to preserve even in this day and age,” explains expert sailor and owner of the historic Zaoli Sails sailmaker Beppe Zaoli, president of the ultracentennial San Remo Yacht Club (his family’s boat, the Resolute Salmon, won in the Classic IOR category). I must say that even in our country we are registering a nice return to vintage boats, but also simply to “vintage” hulls of twenty, thirty years ago, which enthusiasts buy out of passion and take care of with the help of specialized shipyards to participate in rallies and regattas or to sail them with family and friends.

Vintage boats are a market sector with hulls that remain well priced and around which revolves an allied industry in terms of workers, shipyards and restoration workshops that remain active. The younger generation can also be passionate about this type of boating, and I am pleased that we brought about 1,000 Ligurian school children to the event.” .

All individual class winners in the competition

As for the final rankings of the various categories competing in the “Great International Regattas” in San Remo, these were the winners:

Vintage 1: 1. Falcon (1930) – 2. Mariska (1908) – 3. Tuiga (1909)

Vintage 2: 1. Vistona (1937) – 2. Gaudeamus (1914) – 3. Greylag (1932)

Big Boat: Mariska (1908)

Classic: 1. Crivizza (1966) – 2. Penelope (1965) – 3. Eugenia V (1968)

Sangermani: 1. Sandra (1972) – 2. Eugenia V (1968) – 3. Oliria (1976)

Open: 1. Nita (1977) – 2. Triboulet (1987) – Schwanensee (1997)

Regatta Cruise: Vistona (1937)

Classic IOR: 1. Resolute Salmon (1976) – 2. The Moor of Venice (1976) – 3. Matrero (1970)

Conservation Award (for maintaining and continuing to sail the family boat): Emmanuele Dalla Vecchia of Pilgrim (1971)

Sailing & Flavors 2025 : Oliria (1976). Citations of merit for Bonnie (1976) and Nita (1977).

Complete rankings of the regatta are available on the official page https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/documents/10452/event.

As a reminder, the boats participating in the event will remain moored free of charge in San Remo’s Porto Vecchio until June 7, offering the public a unique opportunity to admire these marvels of the sea up close.

Join the Classic Boat Club!

Do you have a Classic Boat (boat more than 25 years old, designed after 1967) or are you interested in the “Classic” world? There’s a new club for you. Discover all the Classic Boat Club member benefits for you and your boat! Already so many boats have signed up!

• Discover the Classic Boat Club