Tre Golfi Sailing Week (May 12) is waiting for you. This is why it is unique

Fairing the hull, prepare the sails! May 12 marks the return, for the 68th time, of the Tre Golfi Sailing Week, the historic regatta that starts in Naples and ends in Sorrento after rounding the island of Ponza and the Li Galli rocks, organized by the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia of Naples.

More than 100 boats are expected, including Maxi and ORC. By the way: the first in ORC real time will also win an hour desalinator from Schenker Watermakers. One reason, among many, to participate.

• Sign up now for Tre Golfi Sailing Week

The others were perfectly explained by Maurizio Pavesi, Vice-President of Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia, in an article a few years ago. The route has changed slightly (you arrive in Sorrento and not Capri), but the spirit and magic of this great classic of the high seas are unchanging.

Secrets of Tre Golfi Sailing Week

“The evocative evening start, the route around so many islands with their ridges, the microclimates of the different gulfs and the predominance of often light winds create surprises even for the most experienced, so that the victory is open to all and that is its charm.

leggi anche

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

Having cut the starting line, at the height of Cape Posillipo the first choice must be made: is it better to keep below the coast (but watch out for the shallows of Gaiola) or sail further offshore? Also: left Monte di Procida, en route to Ponza, how far to go from Ischia with its lofty Mount Epomeo? Easier the next stretch: the route to Ponza is most often pleasant sailing without tactical pitfalls.

Ponza is littered with small traps, though almost never decisive for success in the regatta. I am not referring so much to the shallows between the island and Zannone, but to the route up to Punta della Guardia: with westerly winds, a long series of inshore edges awaits us, but careful not to let opponents further offshore take advantage of sometimes more sustained air.

Having turned the island around, in the 60 miles to Punta Campanella the sun and its westerly breezes will gradually drop to give way to nighttime thermals, and there’s Mount Epomeo on the route again!

Fear of Ischia’s calms advises a route away from the coast, as indeed on Capri. Best to keep 2-3 miles north of the island; passages south of Capri are almost never advantageous unless you plan now in the route from Ponza to avoid additional miles.

leggi anche

Loro Piana Giraglia: war of nerves and no wind, Scallywag first in Genoa

More pitfalls in the last 15 miles. In the Gulf of Salerno, almost always with a different wind than in the Gulf of Naples, the coast toward the islets of Li Galli, near a high coast, forces a choice between the possible coastal thermal and the seemingly safer offshore route.

Finally, we face the turn around Capri: coming from the east we have to turn it around by leaving it to starboard all the way to the harbor, and at least one ridged slope is waiting for us! After the Faraglioni it will be a lottery; to your flair the chance to win (or lose?) an unparalleled regatta“.

Tre Golfi Sailing Week 2023, all the news

For 66 editions, the regatta has followed tradition by starting suggestively at midnight, but for the past couple of years it has been brought forward to 7 p.m., and this year it will be further brought forward to 5 p.m., to favor wind and light conditions for the 100 hulls currently registered, which will then proceed 150 miles past Procida, then Zannone and Ponza, and then back to “Li Galli” in the Gulf of Salerno and the finish in Sorrento.

After the long regatta it will be the turn of the coastal regattas, with the Maxis engaged from May 15 to 18 in the European Championship. 28 boats entered between 60 and 100 feet in length. The longest is still Furio Benussi’s Arca SGR, the real time winner of the 2022 edition, which crossed the finish line after 22 hours, 25 minutes and 30 seconds.

Who will be there

After winter work Arca will still be the boat to beat, but the games will be wide open, just think that last year the first Maxi 72 arrived only half an hour after Benussi’s 100-footer. This year the competition is enhanced not only by the presence of Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s Swan 80 My Song, but also Dario Ferrari’s Cannonball, with a new keel and three feet longer than last year.

In addition to Ferrari’s 75-footer, the challenge will be hot with the other four hulls that were part of the already Maxi 72 class, such as Vesper (USA), Proteus (USA), Jethou (GBR) and North Star (GBR), owned by CRV Italy member Peter Dubens winner of the 2022 Regatta of the Three Gulfs in compensated time.

Both Maxi and ORCs, like last year, will have, in the hospitality villages of their respective ports of call, special treatment with breakfast offered by Caffè Borbone every morning and pasta at the dock after racing.

The European Maxi will end on May 18, and from May 19-21 it will be the turn of the ORC boats to battle it out among the buoys to win the Middle and Lower Tyrrhenian National Championship as well as the title of Mediterranean Champion banned by the ORC. The boats this year will be moored in the Piano di Sorrento Marina, and will have the same special treatment provided for the Maxis with breakfast every morning, offered by Caffè Borbone and pasta at the dock after the races. There will also be daily shuttles to and from Sorrento.

Also up for grabs for the overall winner of the Championship is a fantastic Citroën Ami, an innovative ultra-compact electric vehicle that is perfect for urban transportation. Currently 31 hulls from 7 nations are registered.

• Sign up now for Tre Golfi Sailing Week