TAG Heuer Vela Cup Caprera, 70 happy boats in the blue August sea.

In Caprera, two days before the TAG Heuer VELA Cup the final organizational details were being discussed. “Guys, how many gift bags do we prepare for the sailing crews?” “Make it sixty, just to be plentiful: so many boats will never come anyway.” Instead. Instead, we ended up having to prepare more on the fly for the nearly 70 people registered for this great celebration of sailing that will surely be the first of a long series. Who would have thought, after all, it was a Monday in late August. “This place is magical, magic happens here,” Enrico Bertacchi, the secretary of Centro Velico Caprera, Italy’s most famous sailing school as well as our partner in organizing the sailing trip, had told us.

He was right, the magic was really there: what a sight Porto Palma invaded by boats. What a show the three Latin Rascals put on by Vincenzo Onorato (Swan 77, Swan 38, Smeralda 888) with boys from the Neapolitan sailing school on board, the Open 50 Vento di Sardegna with Andrea Mura in (very rare) cruising mode, with family, son and friends in tow, the beautiful ICE Yachts, the new ClubSwan 50 Django, and the Maxi Dolphin 75 Karma, in its first regatta. What a sight Andrea Tardini’s canary-yellow Nelson 46 Galactica: “nailed to the water, but it’s my home,” he told us. What a spectacle the many boats between J80, Dehler 25, Sunfast 3200 of the CVC, the guys of the G34 Lima Fotodinamico of Simone Camba’s New Sardiniasail association, the “navigator” Marianna De Micheli, the VELA Cup Games on the beach of Porto Palma in “Games Without Borders” style. Et cetera, et cetera. Those who weren’t there missed out on some cool stuff. A true Caribbean-style sailing party with no formality and a great desire to have fun.

The wind, here in the Maddalena archipelago, is never lacking. An east-southeast breeze accompanied the competitors throughout the sail, 18 miles on the course-pardon the repetition, spectacular-Porto Palma-Monaci-Monaci Islands-Porto Palma.

ALL RESULTS
In real time, Giovanni Lombardi’s aforementioned ClubSwan 50 Django came out on top, but the overall winner is the Smeralda 888 Mascalzone Latino helmed by Achille Onorato, son of Vincenzo. Below are the top three finishers in each category and the overall winners:

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CRUISE CATEGORY
Overall Cruise Winner: Sueno (Ice 62), Marco Malgara.
Cruising, class 7 (over 19 m): 1 . Flying Dragon (Swan 70), Giorgio Marsiaj; 2. Mascalzone Latino (Swan 77), Vincenzo Onorato.
Cruise, class 6 (15.01 to 19 m): 1 . Sueno (Ice 62), Marco Malgara; 2. Ichnusa (Comet Luna 5th), Mathias Andreas Reiter.
Cruise, class 5 (13.01 to 15 m): 1 . Fral2 (Comet 45S), Alessandro Nespega; 2. Lirae (Dufour 44), Luigi Gaddi; 3. Extravaganza (Swan 431 R), Giuseppe Fedeli.
Cruise, class 4 (11.01 to 13 m): 1 . Cheyenne (Rodman 42), Tommaso Oriani; 2. Indiana II (Jeanneau Sunfast 40), Giuseppe Scarfì; 3. En Plein Air (Beneteau First 40.7), Paolo Tesio.
Cruising, class 3 (9.51 to 11 m): 1 . Hype (Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 35), Corrado Cavallini.

REGatta CATEGORY
Overall Regatta Winner: Django (ClubSwan 50), Giovanni Lombardi Stronati.
Regatta, Class 7 (over 19 m): 1. Karma (Maxi Dolphin 75), Nicholas Fabris.
Regatta, class 6 (15.01 to 19 m): 1. Django (ClubSwan 50), Giovanni Lombardi Stronati; 2. Why Not (Mylius 60), Roberto Colombo; 3. Wind of Sardinia (Open 50), Andrea Mura.
Regatta, class 5 (13.01 to 15 m): 1. Anna (Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 49), Mario Bellini; 2. Galactica (Nelson 46), Andrea Tardini.
Regatta, class 4 (11.01 to 13 m): 1. Suspiria (Swan 42), Antonino Venneri; 2. Mascalzone Latino (Swan 38), Vincenzo Onorato; 3. The Baby, (First 40.7), Mike Bava.
Regatta, class 3 (9.51 to 11 m): 1. Bruschetta (J/105), Gianmatteo Paulin; 2. Photodynamic Lima (G34), Simone Camba; 3. Spargi (Jeanneau SunFast 3200), CVC.
Regatta, class 2 (7.51 to 9.50 m): 1. Mascalzone Latino (Smeralda 888), Achille Onorato; 2. Lightning (Beneteau First 27), CVC; 3. Thunder (Beneteau First 27), CVC.
Regatta, class 1 (up to 7.50 m): 1. ITA3 (J/24), Salvatore Orecchioni; 2. Garbino (First 25.7), CVC; 3. Aliseo (First 25.7), CVC.

Full rankings at www.velacup.it