Two thousand years of history in 18 miles. This is the VELA Cup Venice

We have already told you how the course of the TAG Heuer VELA Cup / Round The Lido Race scheduled for July 23 (there will also be the Elan Cup) is one not to be missed but it is time to tell you about it in detail. Because it’s not every day you get to sail through history in just 18 miles.

VELA Cup Venice, 2,000 years of history in 18 miles

The event is open to all boats and multihulls, cabin cruisers and open, with no age restriction, no use of tonnage certificates and there are lots of prizes (we remind you that the boats of the Elan shipyard have free membership – here the prizes of the Elan Cup – e there is free mooring for all boats from outside Venice).

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Vela Cup Venice, the start in the Lagoon

It will start, all together, at 12 noon in front ofSan Giorgio Island in the Lagoon. Here not only is the Venice Sailing Company‘s seafront headquarters located, but you can enjoy a unique view of the Serenissima on the San Marco Canal.

St. Servolo Island, characterized by a vast architectural complex and beautiful park, stands out in front of the boats; for a millennium it was a monastic seat and later a hospital for the mentally ill until psychiatric reform caused its closure in 1978.

This is continued in the Orphan Canal, skirting first the island of St. Clement (inhabited since the 12th century, when a Venetian merchant founded a church with an adjoining hospice for pilgrims and soldiers waiting to embark to the Holy Land) and then the abandoned one at Holy Spirit, inhabited over the centuries by various monastic orders and then turned first into a military depot by Napoleon and finally into a powder magazine during World War II.

Poveglia, the first island of “maritime quarantine”

Sailing into the Holy Spirit Channel, the boats will then arrive at the island of Poveglia, inhabited since the time of the ancient Romans and which is famous for being one of the first “maritime quarantine” islands (since the late 1700s), where crews and merchant ships arriving from the east, waiting to enter the Serenissima, stopped for forty days.

Just think that the island retained its function throughout the nineteenth century and until after World War II!

Then off along the canal in Malamocco, one of Venice’s oldest villages on the southern part of the Lido island. It has been inhabited since time immemorial. The place name is first mentioned in the Pactum Lotharii of 840 as Madamaucum; in the following century, however, the forms Metamaucus and Mathemauco are attested.

Do you know that there is a WWF protected oasis?

Here, in front of the Alberoni harbor, there will be the first “checkpoint,” which is the space delimited by two buoys through which the boats will necessarily have to pass. To starboard of the boats the octagons, the defensive structures of the Serenissima.

Before heading out into the open sea, from the mouths of Malamocco harbor (where the second checkpoint will be located), we circumnavigate the southern tip of Lido Island, where theWWF Dune degli Alberoni oasis is located, home to extremely rare bird and amphibian species and where small sea turtles may also be encountered.

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Off to the open sea!

Now the game becomes more “open,” skirting the Lido (on the piaggia if you look closely you’ll find unique huts built by Venetians!) and racing in the open sea (to backdrop crazy hotels like the legendary Excelsior up to the third checkpoint, just before the entrance to the Lido harbor.

VELA Cup Venice ends in the heart of the city

We return to the lagoon passing the “bacan,” or the beach of the Venetians, in front of the fort of Sant’Andrea (a 16th-century work by Veronese architect Michele Sanmicheli), and concludes the sailing trip by passing through the San Niccolò canal, skirting the beautiful island of Certosa and arriving in St. Mark’s Basin, in the heart of the city.

We told you. 18 miles, 2,000 years of history! What are you waiting for to sign up?

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Everything you need to know about the TAG Heuer VELA Cup 2022

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE-Any type of boat with no age limit; no certificate is required. First place winner, with divisions by homogeneous length classes, “Cruise” (white sail)” and “Regatta” (with gennaker/spi)” categories.

FREE BERTHS – For boats participating and arriving from “outside.”

DURATION AND ROUTE – Each of the “Regattas” lasts no more than 3-4 hours. The route is coastal.

THE EQUIPMENT – You don’t have to be an experienced sailor to participate; you don’t use the “rules of racing” but those of sailing.

PRIZES – Prizes are awarded to the first in each class in the “Cruise” and “Regatta” categories with valuable silk-screened plates. The overall winner in compensated time among all participants wins the prestigious TAG Heuer Aquaracer watch and for first in real time antifouling Speedy from Veneziani. Rich prizes raffled among all participants at the awards ceremony held that evening, up for grabs from Garmin are an InReachMini 2 satellite receiver, an inflatable Sup from Vetus, waterproof gloves from Plastimo, multi-purpose knife from Letherman, and a magical roll-up sailor’s craft from Seably.

GIFT BAG – Each registered boat receives a lavish gift bag with race instructions and number stickers, TAG Heuer Vela Cup T shirt. TAG Heuer also offers forestay flag, crew bracelets and caps. Also find useful gadgets from Garmin, Plastimo, Vetus, Veneziani, Seably.

REGISTRATION – Participating is easy, sign up at www.velacup.it or directly at the dock.

INFO: www.velacup.it and www.giornaledellavela.com

THE 2022 STAGES-May 7/8-Liguria di Levante, Chiavari-Golfo del Tigullio, Marina Calata Ovest; June 4/5 Puglia, Brindisi, Marina di Brindisi; July 23/24 Venice, Compagnia della Vela; August 27/28 Sardinia (Costa Smeralda), Cala dei Sardi.

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