FlyingNikka at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup regattas in Porto Cervo

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After the first phase of the tests and training programme between Valencia and Punta Ala, the FlyingNikka is ready to make her racing début: the first full foiling sailing boat in the Mini Maxi category will be taking part in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, the event reserved for the world’s largest and fastest boats, from 5 to 10 September, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.

This is the first competition for the futuristic foil boat of the owner/skipper Roberto Lacorte, built at the King Marine shipyard in Valencia based on a design by a team of designers led by the Irishman Mark Mills, the first of a new generation of boats that aims to win the great international real time sailing classics and beat the distance records on the most significant legs.

A special participation, considering the specific and technically unique nature of the FlyingNikka –which will join the new Mini Maxi 0 category, with an IRC tonnage certificate – considered to be an authentic “test event”, in a race expecting to see over 50 of the world’s fastest and most spectacular Maxi Yachts.

“We can’t wait to race in Porto Cervo, after many intense weeks of training, and we will continue to train in the second half of August, before taking the boat to Sardinia,” explains Roberto Lacorte, who on board will be supported by Team Manager Alessio Razeto as well as Lorenzo Bressani, Enrico Zennaro, Andrea Fornaro and Lorenzo De Felice. “While it’s true that the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup will not be a test event for us, because the division into classes on the basis of the IRC tonnage certificate doesn’t allow us to race directly with the other Maxis, but it is in any case an important occasion. Also because the conditions on the Costa Smeralda are always tough, so we’re talking of coastal regattas and not long offshore navigations like the FlyingNikka was designed for, but in any case it’s a very interesting first test.”

“Obviously we aim to give 100%, like we always do in the water, but we are more interested in continuing to optimise the performance of the FlyingNikka and there is no better context in which to do this than the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup,” adds Lacorte, who shall be in the regatta representing the Yacht Club Repubblica Marinara di Pisa and the Yacht Club Punta Ala. “We will be racing alone, but we’re not the first to do this because in the past other great Maxis like the Esimit Europa 2 and Comanche were forced to be in a class of their own at the start, because of issues relating to the certificate and the actual performance. So we’re in very good company…”

FlyingNikka, supported by the main sponsor Cetilar^® , can count on the partners B&G for the on-board electronics, North Sails for the sails, Montura for the official clothing, and the yards in Punta Ala Costa Etrusca and Marina di Punta Ala for the team base.

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