Stories and winners from the Vele d’Epoca di Imperia 2024
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Two days of fresh winds, between 15 and 20 knots, thus allowed the Vele d’Epoca 2024 to give their best by offering an exceptional show to the many fans present, who also witnessed the parade of elegance that saw the participating yachts parade in an otherwise rare gala.
Vintage Sails 2024
From the small 8 Meters International Tonnage to theAtlantic‘s 64.5 meters, Imperia’s docks offered entertainment around the clock, creating a cross-section capable of covering from the early part of the last century to the 1980s and narrating the evolution of sailing at its best. Amidst games, exhibitions and events, this 2024 edition of theImperia Sailing Week, ready to return next year with even more hulls among those admitted.
Before even tackling the curiosities from the dock, though, here are all of this year’s winners and awardees.
The Rankings
Opening the awards front was the glamour aspect of this edition, with the Elegance Award going to Marga, a splendid 10 Meters International Tonnage of 1910.
Winning, on the other hand, the Imperia 2024 Cup, reserved for the 8 Meters SI class, Anne Sophie, built in 1938 to compete in the ’40 Olympics, which was never held due to World War II. 
the Puritan Initiative
Numbers and rankings aside, Vele d’Epoca does not consist of regattas alone.
Rather, first and foremost, they are a unique opportunity to celebrate an exceptional historical and cultural heritage.
Shifting the focus to the docks, then, among the classics that have made their presence known over the years, this year one of the top-players of the “big” scene also reappeared in Imperia.
It is, of course, the Puritan, the emblematic 38-meter designed by John G. Alden in 1929, an American design archistar (the plans of the Puritan, not for nothing, are preserved at MIT).
Launched in the 1930s, Puritan is indeed an icon among overseas sailing vessels, a wise standard-bearer for the essence of the Schooner and a forerunner hull for many design elements to come (including the flush deck and protected wheelhouses in the cockpit). 
With its passage to the current ownership, which took place in 2015, the iconic Schooner has in fact become a true cultural and awareness platform aimed both at the world of young people and at the world of events related to the Epoch and the heritage of boating.
It is indeed with this new ownership that the Puritan Academy and the Puritan Initiative come to life. 
The second, on the other hand, is an initiative aimed at the front of sustainability and ecology, thus creating a combination of values intended both for the preservation of the culture and philosophies of the sea and the sea and environment themselves. “Yachting was becoming a world increasingly linked to luxury and superficiality, and this touched us and left us perplexed”-says Simon Pandolfi, commander of the Puritan-“hence the idea of creating an Academy and giving back opportunity and culture. On the other hand, a broader discourse. Everything you give to the sea, the sea gives back. And so the involvement wants to go beyond just opportunities, also spreading different ideas, values and sensibilities. This is the parallel that leads to sustainability. It is an attempt to spread culture, both professional and responsible and sustainable. And what element best combines these issues than such a ship? The Puritan is a perfect platform to convey this content to a wide and varied audience.” A philosophy already coming to life in the partnership with Imperia International Sailing Week 2024, for which the Puritan Initiative donated a thousand water bottles, contributing to the sustainability of the event and the village itself (about 6,000 bottles saved, roughly the volume of a 12-meter hull…). 
Voices from the dock
Populating the regatta and wanting to re-engage young people, however, were not only the giants.
In fact, among the hulls present were. Pilgrim, Emmanuele Dalla Vecchia’s 14-meter ketch, class of 1998 and thus, himself, the youngest owner in the entire fleet (as well as an advocate of a program that gives you the opportunity to participate in events such as Vele d’ Epoca-we told you about it HERE).
Being the youngest, however, is a multifaceted experience.
Irrelevant on the passion front, yet at the same time capable of having its own baggage. “I am the youngest but it is the soul that is old, perhaps”-he jokes to me.
“Since I was a child, these are the lines and the impulses that I have been passionate about, and then the world of vintage boats somehow represents what I feel is the spirit of sailing.
Of course, it’s impressive to be the youngest; I’m kind of the standard-bearer of my generation.
And clearly it’s exhausting, economically it’s a tough world and the project I’m doing with Pilgrim(here) is my way of being able to participate.
Because this is where you fall in love with sailing and so all the more important to be able to open it up to others.
And I like to be able to think about reintroducing young people to this…”
They, too, of course, at Vele d’Epoca 2024. 
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