Stupendous racing and elegance ashore for the 34 crews in the Swan Sardinia Challenge

Mistral and shifty conditions keep the 34-strong Swan one-design fleet on their toes
Hatari wins in the ClubSwan 50 class; Ulika in the Swan 45; Nadir in the ClubSwan 42; and G-Spot in the ClubSwan 36
Porto Cervo provides the beautiful backdrop for an elegant social programme hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
Russia is the winning nation, followed by Italy and Germany

North Sardinia and the emerald waters of the Costa Smeralda delivered on their promise of perfect sailing conditions for the ClubSwan fleet assembled for the Swan Sardinia Challenge. Over three days of intense one-design racing, two days of perfect Mistral winds gave the 34 boats a vigorous work-out, putting them through their paces in up to 25 knots. It may only have been possible to complete seven of the 11 races, but the stiffer conditions were just what the crews had been hoping for ahead of the racing, which ran from 22-26 June.

“As it always does, Porto Cervo has delivered some blistering racing for the Swan one-design fleet,” says #federicomichetti, head of Swan sports activities at ClubSwan Racing. “Stronger winds made this famous race course a more testing prospect for owners and crew, and they rose to the challenge. It is a credit to the quality of the sailors here that the boats remained so closely matched.”

The racing was split into four classes, each of which offered its own theatre for intense #competition. Among the ClubSwan 50 boats, Marcus Brennecke’s Hatari fought hard with Dmitry Rybolovlev and Andrey Konogorov’s Sparti and Leonardo Ferragamo’s Cuordileone. After the seven races, just four points stood between the German and the Russian boats, with Brennecke coming out on top with three bullets and two second places. Cuoridileone took third.

Further information in the press release to download