Brindisi-Corfu: the Queen of the South turns 30 years old. It’s a big party in the city

Brindisi is celebrating. The whole city is quivering to properly celebrate 30 years of the Queen of the South: the Brindisi-Corfu. A general enthusiasm that from the docks of the harbor, where boats rest side by side waiting for the countdown, climbs into the alleys of the city’s historic center. All of Brindisi takes part in the celebration: the city enters the regatta and the regatta enters the city.

Regal and just curious passersby fill the docks to comment on some racing bolide or simply to recall some legendary episode from one of the past 29 editions. Parties, music, smiles, a lot of eagerness to catch the sea, fireworks, rivers of wine flowing for the Negroamaro Festival, because summer has been here for a while already. So what could be better than pointing the bow to the crystal clear waters of Corfu?

leggi anche

Loro Piana Giraglia, Ker 40 Vito 2 on its way to overall victory

Having arrived in a hurry from Milan, I did not expect all this: Brindisi with its 5-million-square-meter port (probably one of the largest in Europe) is really one with this event, almost as if it were the feast of the city’s patron saint. A regatta that since 1986, the year Livio Georgevich invented it and in which only six Brindisi boats participated, has united Italy and Greece, pizzica and sirtaki, bringing boats of every nationality, from Italy to Greece, Serbia to Montenegro and Croatia, to the Apulian coast. “The charm of the Toast-Corfu lies also in the fact that there are so many small regattas within one”-Livio Georgevich tells me-“friends and berth neighbors competing, owners taking advantage of it to move the boat to Greece for the summer, the match race between twin Farr80s.” Already 118 people have registered for this 30th edition, which starts today Wednesday, June 10, at 1 p.m. A great success, confirming the Brindisi-Corfu as Queen of the Adriatic, second only in glamour and prestige in these waters to the Trieste Barcolana. A regatta that we can now call a Mediterranean classic on par with the Giraglia, the Middle Sea Race and the 151-mile race and the protagonist as an offshore regatta of the “Italian Offshore Championship.”

120 miles or so, from the mouth of the port of Brindisi to Kassiopi (a location north of Corfu) passing also, new this year, through a mandatory gate placed in front of the port of Otranto. But the novelties did not end there: this year there will also be a “return regatta”; on Saturday, June 12, the boats will point their bows toward Otranto, from where they will depart the following week, again by regatta, for Brindisi. There are three categories in the regatta: Grand Cruise (for those who perhaps have a summer cruise to Greece among their plans, what better opportunity to relocate the boat?), Cruise/Race and Regatta. Each boat will be able to be tracked in real time on a tracker, thanks to a satellite tracker provided to all crews. So many elements have ensured the success of this event for years: the great welcoming spirit of which the organization is capable, the beauty of the destination, Corfu, with its crystal-clear waters and dreamy beaches. Among the boats in attendance were Idrusa the 80-foot (24.5 m) superMaxidesigned by architect Bruce Farr of owner Paolo Montefusco and its twin, the maxi Farr80 Team Sistiana by Pirato-Vecchiett. The weather gives a forecast of light winds, and already at the dock the first predictions are being ventured: “Will Moon Shine, Edoardo Ziccarelli’s Cori 52, win again?” Among the crews we are curious to see is the all-pink team of Chica Magnum, and a last-minute new entry: a U.S. husband and wife around the Mediterranean who will participate double-handed. Let the party begin!