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The world’s largest regatta – and you’ve probably never heard of it

Barcelona Boats

 

Oct 23, 2018

Barcolana

This month, Spirit of Portopiccolo, steered by Furio Benussi, with Alberto Bolzan at the mainsail, and tacticians Lorenzo Bressani and Gabriele Benussi, won the 50th edition of Barcolana, the largest regatta in the world held in Trieste, Italy

Barcelona AirshowOn the second Sunday of October, at 10.30 am, right after the Italian Air Force display at 10.10 am, the largest regatta in the world kicked off. Note these record participation numbers: 2,689 competitors, 28 thousand sailors, over 400 events on land and at sea and over 300 thousand spectators. Among these, there must have been some Canadians but the staggering result sheets (83 pages!) don’t mention any CDN boats among the 26 hundred.

Barcelona WaterfrontWinning Barcolana means being first in the largest regatta in the world. Before the gun, organizers decided to widen the start line by 500 metres to be able to accommodate all registered boats at the start line, extending it to two miles in length.

Staggering! Take a look at the of results http://www.barcolana.it/classifica

and digest the number of boats, from all over Europe mostly. I was surprised to observe that there was a huge proportion of what I’d call ‘regular’ boats rather than exotic super racers.

The pictures are impressive, but I think any keen boater will need to add Trieste to their bucket list to see the spectacle first hand.

– JM

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