Rolex Capri Sailing Week - Stars and Farrs

by Yacht Club Italiano on 14 May 2017 The final day of racing in the 2017 Rolex Capri Sailing Week, sponsored by Rolex and organised by the Yacht Club Italiano, the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia, the Circolo Canottieri Aniene and Capri’s own Yacht Club Capri, dawned cool and clear after the previous evening’s glittering Rolex Dinner held at Capri’s famous Quisisana Hotel with guests like Gaddo della Gherardesca, live music by Serena Autieri and a fireworks display. As the boats racing in the Mylius Cup, the Campionato Nazionale del Tirreno and the Farr 40 Class left port, the scoreboard was close in the top three places of several of the Classes racing. But by the end of the day the verdict was in.

ORC A Class had three Swan yachts in the top places, all separated by just one point. There was a similar situation in the ORC B Class. But the duel that was keeping everyone on the edge of their seats was in the Farr 40 Class between Enfant Terrible and Pazza Idea.

The two yachts could not have been named better for this event: Enfant Terrible, owned by Alberto Rossi, father of twenty-four year old Claudia, the enfant who gave her father a terrible time all through the RCSW thanks to Pier Luigi Bresciani’s pazza, Pazza Idea.

Bresciani’s crazy idea was to put a young woman who had never helmed a Farr 40 competitively before at the helm of his yacht for the Rolex Capri Sailing Week. His wife Mariella explains, “My husband likes to take risks and he has a real sense of adventure. In this case he bet on Alberto Rossi’s daughter Claudia. He was talking with One Sail’s Dede de Luca, trying to put a crew together for this event and asked if he thought it would be a bad idea to put Claudia at the helm, seeing her success in the J/70 Class.” It may have been a Pazza Idea, but it wasn’t a bad idea at all: Claudia managed to hold off star sailors, men of the calibre of Vasco Vascotto, Tommaso Chieffi and the list goes on, aboard other yachts and tie for third. Not bad for the event’s only Corinthian crew and for a young woman who blows kisses to her father as the yacht she’s helming pulls past him. Bravo Mr. Bresciani for the winning bet.

The prize giving ceremony in Capri’s famous Piazzetta where the Yacht Club Italiano’s sponsor BMW had a 740 iL on display, was joyful and colourful, thanks to folk music and dancing provided by the Yacht Club Capri and Capri’s own Scialapopolo group. Valter Pizzoli, the Owner of the Swan 45 OD Ange Trasparent won the Trofeo Challenge reserved for the top placed boat across alla of the RCSW’s events and will go home with a new Rolex Submariner on his wrist. So will Alberto Rossi winner of the Farr 40 Class and the owner of Oscar 3, winner of the Mylius Cup. The final event in this wonderful regatta was an evening of dancing offered by Fideuram at Capri’s most famous club, Amena e Core.

The Yacht Club Italiano thanks all participants in the Rolex Capri Sailing Week.