Fashion is once again associated with the world of super yachts with the presence of King George who will inaugurate the 2022 sports season in the Mediterranean Costa Smeralda Yacht Club with the Giorgio Armani Superyacht Regatta.
Boats with a minimum length of 31 feet and multihulls of at least 90 feet in length can participate in the regatta (from 50 May).
“When I built my first boat – explains Giorgio Armani who has the role of title sponsor – the Marilù, I risked becoming a boat designer. So it was natural for me to be one of the sponsors. This allowed me to get even closer to the reality that surrounds us, made up of wonderful landscapes and the Mediterranean that I love deeply".
Princess Khan introduces new sports calendar
This morning the entire il was presented YCCS 2022 sports calendar with the introduction of the video message of the Princess Zahra Aga Khan – daughter of the founder of Costa Smeralda Karim Aga Khan. “They have been tough and difficult seasons, we have had to adapt to a new reality with all the restrictions due to the pandemic and now we are moving forward in safety. We hope that in this way our sports program can end in the best possible way and without problems,” said the princess.
The program is back to being intense after the limitations of the pandemic. “Another intense season awaits us, with many challenges and as many resolutions. The international situation is dramatically worrying but, I refer to the words of World Sailing: sport can and must be a positive force" he said Michael Ilbruck, Commodore of the YCCS thanking the partners and in particular Rolex, Allianz, Jaguar Land Rover.
Between July and August the scheduled sporting events will be: la Emerald European Cup (July 8-10), the Club championship dedicated to YCCS members (August 6-7), the Formenton Trophy (August 20) and the Palermo-Porto Cervo-Montecarlo (August 19-24).
September will be the month of the most characteristic regattas on the YCCS sports calendar organized with the support of historic partner Rolex.
From 4 to 10 September will take place the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, 2022 marks the thirty-second edition of the event and as every year an impressive fleet at the forefront of yacht design and shipbuilding is expected together with internationally renowned sailors. The first edition of the IMA 11 Hour Challenge Porto Cervo-Monaco will make its debut on 24 September, an event born from the collaboration between the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, the Yacht Club de Monaco and the International Maxi Association. The boats participating in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will be able to register to face the crossing from Porto Cervo to Montecarlo.
The Rolex Swan Cup is back after four years
After four years of absence due to the pandemic, the Rolex Swan Cup organized in collaboration with the Nautor's Swan shipyard. The biennial event attracts a large fleet of yachts representing the entire history of the Nautor's Swan 'family'. The numbers of members of the last editions are record-breaking, between 2016 and 2018 they fluctuated between 110 and 120 participants. Led by internationally renowned sailors, the "swans of the sea" will compete from 11 to 18 September in the setting of the La Maddalena Archipelago.
The traditional season will close the YCCS sports season Sailing & Golf in which the teams first compete on the green of the Pevero Golf Club and then in a regatta in the waters off Porto Cervo aboard the J/70 fleet.
Costa Smeralda turns 60 this year: history
This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Costa Smeralda. At the end of the Fifties the English financier, John Duncan Miller, after falling in love with the colors of Gallura, he spoke about them in the financial circles of London, which also included a very young prince Karim Aga Khan. It was he who, together with other investors, gave birth to one of the most famous destinations for international elite tourism. Six founding members who gave birth to the Costa Smeralda Consortium on 14 March 1962 in Olbia, in front of the notary Mario Altea: in addition to the Aga Khan and Miller himself, Patrick Guinness, Felix Bigio, Andrè Ardoin and René Podbielski.
Together with the first luxury hotels, work began on the construction of roads, docks in the port, the airport (it began with a dirt runway and with the birth of Alisarda as an airline for the transport of the first customers), a golf course , heliport, medical center, shipyard for yacht storage, the Stella Maris Church, security service.
Until that period those lands, as tourism in Sardinia had not yet developed and also considered by the owners to be unsuitable for grazing (in the inheritances of Gallura families, lands far from the coast were given to sons because they were considered more valuable, while females were entitled those on the sea because they were considered unproductive), certainly did not have the value that was subsequently brought to them by the construction of infrastructures, services and hospitality.
Among the first buildings to see the light was theCala di Volpe hotel, designed by the pencil of Jacques Couëlle, considered one of the most beautiful hotels in the world, with its rooms, each one different from the other, and the suite with swimming pool at 20 euros a day.
The historic nucleus of was then built Porto Cervo, the heart of the Costa Smeralda, imagined and designed by the architect Luigi Vietti, inaugurated in 1964.
The development of the Costa Smeralda coincided with the acquisition, by the Aga Khan, of the share package of the Giga Hotels which counted the ownership of the most beautiful hotels in Europe. In 94, the transfer of shares from the Aga Khan to Sheraton coincided with a crisis in relations with those in charge of regional policy and the departure of the Ismaili prince, who however still retains some activities today, such as the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
Forty years ago the launch that made Italians fall in love with sailing
2022 also marks the fortieth anniversary of the launch of Azzurra, on 19 July 1982 in Pesaro, which had marked the moment in which the sport of sailing made its way among the Italians.
The sporting heritage of Azzurra has remained an integral part of YCCS DNA, for this reason the sports program was launched in 2020 Young Blue which today has been relaunched in a new form: with the new programme, the YCCS is committed to supporting up to 4 young sailing talents for the 2021/2024 Olympic four-year period with particular attention and interest in Sardinian athletes who have as their objective participation in Championships National, European, World and Olympic Games.
