Baciottinho: how to transform a production boat into an Italian ORC champion hull

Take a 2009 production boat, fix it up, optimize it, and put a “seasoned” crew of friends on board. That’s how Baciottinho won the last Italian Absolute Offshore Sailing Class 4 Championship in Loano (SV), which we tell you about on page. 124. Baciottinho is a Dufour 34 Performance owned by Milanese shipowner Giuseppe Tadini. A 2009 production boat that, optimized for ORC that proved far more racer than other race-born hulls. We asked Tadini to reveal Baciottinho’s “secrets” to us: “Nothing is secret,” the owner is keen to clarify, who nonetheless came to gather results in stages, making the boat go through an optimization process that involved more eminent Italian “brains,” between hull and sails. “The bulb was put in template by Umberto Felci (original designer of the boat),” Tadini says, “the sail plan is the work of Maurizio Cossutti in collaboration with Fabio Ascoli of OneSails, later remodeled by Guido Cavalazzi and Giovanni Sanfelice of North Sails. It all began in 2010 when Tadini decided to buy the boat, which was sitting idle in a shipyard in Bocca di Magra with “zero miles,” after being commissioned by a Sicilian shipowner who never picked it up. Compared to the basic version, it already had some modifications to make it more competitive: “the enlarged mast (the “P “is 12.18 m as opposed to the original 11.70), rod shrouds, and B&G instrumentation, which is very effective in regattas if you learn how to use it well.” In the following pages we show you the steps taken by Joseph (he is “Koki” to his friends) to make Baciottinho a little racing beast. useful for lightening the boat by 150kg, optimizing its performance on the basis of the ORC system, and streamlining maneuvers on board by making them easier, so that energies can be focused on better boat handling and racing tactics. Turn the page and…draw inspiration!

Find the full article in the September issue of The Journal of Sailing