PANERAI Classic Yachts Challenge concludes
The 37th edition of Les Régates Royales has brought the hugely successful Officine Panerai-sponsored Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge to a conclusion for the season.
Moonbeam IV (Big Boats category), Manitou (Vintage category) and Il Moro di Venezia I (Classic category) are the three prestige wood-built sailing yachts that have won the 2015 season trophies and, in doing so, added their names to the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge Mediterranean Circuit roll of honour. The final stage on the circuit attracted a fleet of some 80 yachts of between 7 and 60 metres built between the late 1800s and the early years of this century.
This was a fitting end for the 11th edition of the leading international circuit for these Grandes Dames of the Sea after a long and exhilarating racing season featuring stages at Antibes (France), Porto Santo Stefano (Italy) and Mahon (Spain).
Moonbeam IV is a 35-metre gaff cutter launched in 1914 at the William Fife & Son yard in Scotland. Built from teak over a steel frame, she took part in three stages of the circuit this year – Antibes, Mahon and Cannes. This is Moonbeam IV’s third time to win the much-coveted season trophy in the Big Boats category after previous triumphs in 2011 and 2012.
Manitou, on the other hand, is an 18.8-metre Bermudan yawl launched in the US in 1937 and designed by the legendary Sparkman & Stephens studio of New York. This year, she competed in every round of the circuit to win the Vintage season trophy for the first time ahead of her nearest rivals in the category, Rowdy (1916), Chinook (1916) and Leonore(1925).
The historic 20.41-metre German Frers-penned Italian yacht Il Moro di Venezia I took her second Classic season trophy after also winning in 2013. Sailed by an 18-man Corinthian crew, Il Moro di Venezia I raced in the Antibes, Porto Santo Stefano and Cannes rounds on the circuit and paved the way for victory with some reconditioning work to her hull. Based at Portofino in Liguria, Il Moro was flying the burgees of the two clubs of which she is a member, the Yacht Club de Monaco and the Yacht Club Sanremo.
Four Panerai luxury sports watches were also presented to the winners of the main categories in Les Régates Royales. Aside from Moonbeam IV‘s abovementioned win in the Big Boats, the 12-m Tilly XV took the honours in the Vintage category. In the Classic category, the top step on the podium went to the Marconi cutter EA, a 1952 19.5-metre Baglietto. Lastly, victory in the Spirit of Tradition class was claimed by the 1968 11-m Helisara.
In the Challenge of Challenge, instigated by Officine Panerai this year and featuring a line-honours one-on-one race between two yachts, the 1903 Moonbeam III crossed the line ahead of the 1926 Hallowe’en. Overall victory in the 40-strong Dragon fleet went to M3 skippered by German Michaël Schmidt.
Cannes once again proved the most important and popular classic yacht regatta in the Mediterranean, with both sailors and owners already promising to return in 2016 for the next season of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge.
