New York Yacht Club (NYYC) Invitational Cup- Two Italian team profiles

by Dana Paxton on 27 Aug 2009
While most Europeans enjoy a long holiday during the month of August, two groups of Italians are using the vacation time to prepare for the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) Invitational Cup taking place September 15-19 in Newport, R.I.

The team from the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, in Porto Cervo, took part in the Trofeo Formenton coastal race on the northern side of the island of Sardinia, while the team from the Yacht Club Italiano, in Genoa, chartered a Swan 42 to bank some practice time. Both teams will arrive a few days in advance of the inaugural regatta’s start to acclimate to the NYYC Swan 42s (being used by all teams in the event) as well as the challenging fall winds of Southern New England.

Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
This September will be one of the busiest on record for the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda on the Italian isle of Sardinia. There's the Perini Navi Cup and the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup – which will bring unprecedented tonnage into the cozy harbor – followed by the final leg of the Audi Melges 20 Sailing Series and then the Audi Melges 32 World Championship. It's a string of events that will showcase the club's hospitality and experience in organizing regattas. As for the sailing skills of YCCS members, those will be on display both in Porto Cervo and 3,000 miles away.

'The New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a wonderful opportunity for the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. We are very pleased to participate in an event of such a high level,' said YCCS Commodore Riccardo Bonadeo. 'The fact that all of the participants will be amateurs and the number of top clubs competing means that this regatta represents a sort of world championship for yacht clubs.'

While he doesn’t have a tremendous amount of experience with the NYYC Swan 42, YCCS team skipper Vittorio Codecasa is quite familiar with the brand—he’s a Swan 45 owner and president of the Swan 45 Class Association. Winner of the RC44 Gold Cup in 2007, he describes the crew for the event as 'a group of friends who have occasionally raced together.' The team recently had the opportunity, however, to use Nautor’s Swan CEO Leonardo Ferragamo’s NYYC Swan 42 Cuordileone in a three day practice session, during which they won their division in the Trofeo Mario Formenton, a random-leg race through the Maddalena Archipelago.

Among the crew are Stratis Andreadis, owner and helmsman of the Farr 40 Atalanti XI, and 2008 X-35 world champion Alberto Signorini. Another name of note is Newport local Dyer Jones, who was the regatta director for the 32nd America’s Cup. The rest of the crew includes Maria Filippo Faruffini di Sezzadio, owner of the GP42 Roma, Stefano Liguori, 2007 Melges 24 Italian National Champion Patrizio Monaco Furio, Filippo Molinari, and Alessandro Maria Rinaldi, who will have completed racing in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup aboard his Farewell just days before the start of the Newport regatta.

You’d be hard pressed to find a veteran professional sailor that hasn’t raced on the YCCS regatta course off Porto Cervo. From May through September few clubs in Europe, or even the world, are as busy with as many high-profile events. However, the Corinthian aspect of the Invitational Cup is one of its most appealing attributes.

'We are particularly happy that our team will compete in the Corinthian spirit,' said Commodore Bonadeo, who will be attending the NYYC Invitational Cup together with a group of the Club’s officers to support the YCCS team. 'The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda strongly believes in promoting true Corinthian sailing. Ever since the YCCS commissioned the Smeralda 888 from German Frers in 1992, the Club has organized annual interclub events for amateur sailors and now teams from the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Yacht Squadron, Royal Ocean Racing Club, Yacht Club Monaco and Gstaad Yacht Club regularly meet in Sardinia to compete and strengthen existing bonds of friendship. This is a very important part of yachting, which in recent years has perhaps been overshadowed, given the large number of professional sailors competing on board in many regattas.'

What the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda lacks in years since its establishment—it was founded in 1967 by H.H. the Aga Khan, Andrè Ardoin, Giuseppe Kerry Mentasti, and Luigi Vietti—it more than makes up for in other ways, not the least of which is its impressive facility. In 1977, the club moved to new premises overlooking the Porto Cervo marina, a modern and functional structure ideal for hosting numerous members and the ever-growing regatta calendar.

Yacht Club Italiano
The proud racing tradition of Yacht Club Italiano suffuses the team it has assembled for the Invitational Cup. Skipper Carlo A. Puri Negri, vice president of Pirelli Group, is the owner and helmsman of Atalanta II, which has achieved great success on the Mini Maxi circuit. Negri’s Farr 70 dominated the 2005 Rolex Middle Sea Race, taking line honors and first overall, and won its class at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in 2006 and 2007. Other Atalanta II crewmembers joining Negri for the Invitational Cup include his 16-year-old son, Tadzio, who will serve as tailer, pitman Pierangela Casarico, who raced in the 1998 ARC, and tailer Elio Petracchi, who, in 1995, won both the Admiral’s Cup and the ILC 40 World Championship sailing Brava Q8 with Francesco de Angelis, Paul Cayard, Rod Davis and Torben Grael.

Petracchi is one of two crewmembers bringing America’s Cup experience to the Yacht Club Italiano team. He served as pitman aboard the 12-Metre Italia, which was one of 13 challengers that competed in the 1986-1987 Louis Vuitton Cup. Nicolo Reggio, who will be calling tactics during the Invitational Cup, is another Cup veteran, having served as mainsail trimmer aboard the 12-Metre Azzurra for its 1983 and 1987 campaigns.

'Our team belongs to the Yacht Club Italiano,' said Negri. 'However, four members of the crew are the same as always, and some are new members because the main rule – a good rule – of the race requires that all but two members of the crew must be members of the Yacht Club Italiano. Therefore it’s a new mix for us.'

In order for the new team to acclimate to each other, they chartered a NYYC Swan 42 and competed in two YCI-hosted regattas: the Regate Pirelli for the Coppa Carlo Negri and the Giraglia Rolex Cup. Will they be ready for September? 'I could imagine the NYYC will be the most competitive club at the event,' said Negri. 'I’m happy and honored to represent the Yacht Club Italiano. I have always competed by helming the boat myself. I consider all races in which I have taken part Corinthian. With this said, I believe more competitions should race really Corinthian and not professional.'

One obvious asset Yacht Club Italiano sailors bring to the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is considerable experience racing NYYC Swan 42s. Reggio competes in the class’s Mediterranean circuit aboard Cuordileone; as does navigator Giuseppe Montella. Mainsail trimmer Paulo Pastorino crews aboard rival boat Kora 4, the 2008 Swan 42 European champion.

The Yacht Club Italiano team is not just a collection of big-boat sailors. Mastman Giovanni Clavarino races ORC 40-footers, but the 21-year-old is a Laser sailor at heart, while pitman Giacomo Fossati has made a name for himself in the International 420 class. The team’s sole female member, Myriam Cutolo, is an accomplished dinghy racer in her own right. She crewed for Elisabetta Saccheggiani in the Women’s 470 at the 2004 Olympics, and the pair later won bronze at the 2005 World University Games. More recently, Cutolo signed on as a tailer for the Ladies First IRC campaign.

Along with a group of sailing enthusiasts that included Italy’s King Umberto I, Vittorio Augusto Vecchi founded Yacht Club Italiano in 1879. The following year, the club’s inaugural regatta drew 177 boats and helped establish a legacy of promoting the sport, organizing national