Italia Yachts reign supreme in Crotone

July saw three newly-launched Italia Yachts 11.98’s battle it out in the Campionato Italiano Assoluto Vela D’Altura 2019 (Absolute Italian Championship) in the waters of Crotone, Southern Italy.

GUARDAMAGO II, SCUGNIZZA and SUGAR 3 (fresh from her ORC Worlds victory) competed head-to-head with podiums all round. Enzo De Blasio aboard SCUGNIZZA eventually reigning supreme in Class 3R and picked up the special UVAI award for best owner/helmsman of Group B. Ott Kikkas aboard SUGAR 3 placed second in the overall regatta classification of classes A,1,2,3 and picked up the BPR prize for the first in Group B. Massimo Romeo Piparo sailing aboard GUARDAMAGO II took the top step of the podium in Class 2R in his very first regatta aboard his new IY 11.98.

For Matteo Polli, designer of the IY 11.98, sailing aboard SUGAR 3, he reported: “seeing two boats so close together in the water, apart from the fun of being able to race as in a monotype, is a strong signal on the validity of the boat. If SCUGNIZZA hadn’t had a little snag he would certainly have brought home a better result and, even if we hadn’t made the small mistakes, we would certainly have both arrived in front of bigger boats. In this championship we have seen that the IY 11.98 sails very well even with light airs and that, although they are to be counted among the small ones in many cases they have beaten the strongest of the group 0 as Altair and Milù “. For the SUGAR 3 team, the next event is the ORC European Championship in Sweden with the multi ORC-worlds winning IY 9.98 Fuoriserie.

For Massimo Romeo Piparo, owner IY 11.98 GUARDAMAGO II ”it was nice to arrive in Crotone anyway and be able to do 8 races with two sister ships already optimized. It has allowed us to make rapid progress: we have practically concentrated the tests of a whole winter and I am very happy “

Simone Busonero, Youth Match Race World Champion, sailing aboard GUARDAMAGO II commented: “getting on and on a new boat, just delivered and seeing results in terms of performance in just three days is really very motivating”.

At the end of the event Daniele De Tullio or Italia Yachts reported: “I am very satisfied with the performance of 11.98, where SCUGNIZZA and SUGAR 3 dominated the ranking in all 8 races. The two boats, moreover always in close competition, often dominated even the largest boats, although it was obviously not possible to implement a real strategy against them. The performances of SUGAR 3, thanks to their excellent way of conducting the boat, have led to the winning of further important awards, in addition to the recently won ORC Worlds title in Sibenik. The next important appointment for Italia Yachts will be in October in Cala Galera for the Italian Cup where I expect that GUARDAMAGO II, already strong of this result at its debut, will be able to compete directly with SCUGNIZZA “.