Barcolana - Sailors, Singers And Top Models In Trieste

Trieste, 10 October – Already 15 thousand people have visited the Barcolana Sailing Show yesterday and today and followed the events linked to the Barcolana. The great sporting event which is also an end-of-season meeting for all the sailing community, has already started. After the arrival of the Croatian soccer player Zvonimir Boban, of New Zealand’s millionaire of Alfa Romeo, Neville Crichton, and the tactician of Alinghi Brad Butterworth, the Barcolana will host beautiful ladies today (as the model Monika Tomaskova), the most entertaining singers (“Elio e le storie tese”, who will perform on the stage of the Barcolana Sailing Show) and Prince Alberto of Monaco, who will confirm tonight his presence tomorrow in Trieste, in order to partecipate in the race. Tomorrow, the solitary seafarer Giovanni Soldini and the Ocean sailor Miranda Merron are expected, while Stefano Rizzi (ex Luna Rossa, twice protagonist in the round-the-world competion) is already in town, ready to compete on a Solaris 36.

The local bigs of sailing will arrive at the last minute, they have participated in races all over the world: Vasco Vascotto, Lorenzo Bressani and Gabriele Benussi, are all competing on Elba Island where the world class Mumm30 championship will end tomorrow, and they are all looking foreward to coming back to Trieste Gulf; it’s hard to stay away from their hometown gulf when such a great festival is taking place.

From a sporting standpoint, participants enrolled in the Barcolana have already reached 1507 and today is the last chance for people from Trieste to formalize their participation. Tomorrow registration is reserved for sailors coming from abroad and berthing their sailing boats along the Waterfront and in the marinas of Venezia Giulia, overbooked for the race.

METEO – Weather forecast for Sunday confirmed: medium wind probably blowing from south. Boat owners are eliminating all the unnecessary load from their boats and looking for lager sails in order to increase the speed of their boats.

MEDIA – As to the media, everything is ready for live TV broadcasting organised by the national network Rai (airing on Sunday from 10 to 12 on Rai Tre). Thanks to a cross-border agreement, images featured by Rai will be sent to TV Koper, and the race will thus be viewed live for two hours by the entire Istrian coast and all over Slovenia: this is an outstanding result which once again testifies to the importance this event bears for Trieste and the Upper Adriatic area.

CONGRESS – Tomorrow an important congress will be held in Trieste ( 3 pm at the Stazione Marittima), organised by the Fair and by the Port Authority, with the participation of the Mayor of Genoa, Pericu: the authorities of the two cities will discuss the theme of the waterfront development; Genoa will deal with with the outcomes derivino from the Old Port’s redevelopment, Trieste will present its city-oriented renewal projects for the Old Port.

FINCANTIERI CUP – Second day of tough races at the Fincantieri Cup, competition upon invitation organised by Promo Sail with the Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano and Yacht Club Adriaco, with the partnership of Fincantieri, Tamoil and AEG. 10 tems on Slaris 36 monotype. Good 8 knots wind blowing during 4 races.
Protagonists of the battle were Trieste’s Furio Benussi and Lorenzo Bodini, Genoa’s Andrea Casale, Croatia’s Darko Haidinjak (very good performance today) and Slovenia’s Samo Potokar. The first race was won by Haidinjak ahead of Casale and Benussi; the second race was won by Gianni Scherl (skipper of Fincantieri boat, with Ivan Bertaglia at the rudder) ahead of Bodini and Benussi. Bodini, Haidinjak and Casale, in that order, left the rest of the fleet behind in the thid race.
Tomorrow two more races are scheduled. At 17.45 the prize giving ceremony will take place at the Stazione Marittima.

Tomorrow the Gran Premio Barcolana ERSA will take place in the Bacino San Giusto at 19.30. A large public will watch it from the waterfront. The race area will be floodlit and the teams will compete for 30 minutes on a straight course: who goes round more times wins.
Grand finale at 22.30 with fireworks.