Italia Yachts – ORC World Champions for 2019

Italia Yachts with the newly-launched IY 11.98 / 39 has won a third ORC World Championship title for the Venice-based company.

The winning crew of the newly-launched Italia 11.98 ‘SUGAR 3’

The Italia 11.98 ‘SUGAR 3’ crewed by Ott Kikkas, Sandro and Paolo Montefusco, Maurizio Loberto, Paolo Bucciarelli, Siim Ots, Marjaliisa Umb and naval architect Matteo Polli scored a decisive win in the ORC-C Class with three wins over the six races. Having arrived in Croatia with a newly-launched boat, they had little time to tune and optimize the boat for the waters around Sibenik but with the assistance of the Italia Yachts ‘Squadra Corse’ technical team, the team slipped effortlessly into the groove.

The Italia 11.98 ‘SUGAR 3’ powered up under spinnaker – photo credit Fabio Taccola)

Ott Kikkas’ racing skills are known for finishing third at the European Championship in Poland in 2017 and second at Parnu in Estonia in 2015 and winning it in Sweden in 2013. “Today we went out in the hope of having as many races as possible and to fight to the last against our opponent ‘Hebe V’. We knew it would be hard to win Gold, but we were ready for anything. For us it was the first time with this intensity of wind, without having much knowledge of the boat yet. In the end the Italia 11.98 didn’t disappoint us even in these conditions and allowed us to win the race while our opponent made his first and only mistake in this series of races. We are honored to have beaten such a strong crew, that of Hebe V,” comments Matteo Polli in his wet clothes for the traditional dive in the harbour.

The Italia 11.98 ‘SUGAR 3’ perfectly balanced to windward – photo credit Fabio Taccola)

Corrado Annis, owner and helmsman of the IY 9.98 ‘LADY DAY’ celebrated his third-place finish on the podium in the Corinthian division: “It was a beautiful championship as a location and for the situations we encountered on the race course. We confirmed our third place in the Corinthian championship, repeating the result of 2017. We are happy with the performance and we will work to improve even further”. As with ‘SUGAR 3’, they arrived in Sibenik with a boat launched just a few days prior so they still have to ‘take the lead’ but they wanted to confront the strongest immediately.

The Italia 9.98 ‘LADY DAY powers upward to a third position result – photo credit Fabio Taccola)

Onboard the Italia 11.98  ‘SCUGNIZZA’, a multi-championship winning team, but now with a brand new boat, “the owner or ‘Cap’ as they call him on board finished satisfied with the boat for the first time on a racing field: as even without any optimisation she still turned out to be very competitive and fast through the water. Their very bad luck in the first race (the long distance race is not discarded) decided the evolution of their world championship campaign, but the team “faced the races with a knife between its teeth,” says Giada De Blasio.

The Italia 11.98 ‘SCUGNIZZA’ enjoys the challenging conditions around Sibenik – photo credit Fabio Taccola)

Italia Yachts closes this 2019 ORC World Championship with 4 boats in the top 15, Sugar 3 – IY 11.98 – Ott Kikkas 1°, Giulia – IY 9.98 – Rudolf Vrestal 9°, Lady Day – IY 9.98 – Corrado Annis 11° (3rd Corinthian), Scugnizza – IY 11.98 – Enzo De Blasio 13°, Take a Five Jr – IY 9.98 – Brenno Dal Pont 19°.

The Italia 9.98 ‘GUILIA’  photo credit Fabio Taccola)

The Italia 9.98 ‘TAKE FIVE JR’  photo credit Fabio Taccola)

ORC Worlds 2019 Day 1 – Offshore Race

ORC Worlds 2019 Day 2 – Inshore Race

ORC Worlds 2019 Day 3 – Inshore Race

ORC Worlds 2019 Day 3 – Offshore Race

We now look forward to the next ORC World Championship, in 2020 in Newport (USA).

For further information, brochures and price lists for any other boat in the Italia Yachts range, please contact us.