The Allure of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup

Whereas the yachts, the sailors and the racecourses are a major draw, so too, say veterans, is the Yacht Membership Costa Smeralda.

“The entire present is a stage past some other occasion you go to,” Holmberg mentioned. “Y.C.C.S. — they set the mark. They’re the usual, the best that I’ve seen world wide” due to its extraordinary facilities and the professionals it brings in to assist run the regatta.

Edoardo Recchi, the membership’s secretary basic and sports activities director, referred to as the regatta the membership’s signature occasion. Whereas Recchi was clear that the regatta’s situations, programs and competitors stage are its most necessary attributes, he famous that having a “excessive stage of companies and numerous particulars is fairly engaging to all of the house owners,” about 90 % of whom return annually.

Along with the racing, the yacht membership organizes post-sailing and night social occasions. This contains Saturday’s ceremony, the place the winners of every class obtain Rolex watches.

“Each single proprietor that enters the [regatta], for certain, is dreaming of being handed a Rolex,” Westlake mentioned. “You by no means see a much bigger smile on an proprietor’s face [than] when he stands on the rostrum holding onto that Rolex.”

Whereas there are simpler methods of buying a Rolex than successful the regatta, none contain seeing one’s identify topping the leaderboard outdoors the yacht membership.

“For me, the Maxi is the race to win, full cease,” Recordati mentioned, who has by no means gained a watch, however missed successful his class on the 2011 occasion by simply two factors. Of the coastal inshore races, he mentioned, it’s “the one that everyone needs to win.”