Drago Volante is the overall winner of Galiola 2024, offshore race valid for the Italian Offshore Championship organized by the Circolo Velico Ravennate. Antonella Gismondi’s Farr 30 crossed the finish line at 7.04pm on Saturday evening, recording the best overall performance on corrected time, useful for overtaking, among others, Bonfiglio Mariotti’s TP52 Blue, the undisputed protagonist of the regatta, who led in real time throughout its entirety, winning line honors in record time.
Also placing between the two in the corrected time ranking were Marco Rusticali’s Mr Hyde, who took second place, and Massimo Juris’ Colombre, who completed the overall podium.
The regatta, 162 miles long non-stop, it took place on the route connecting Ravenna and the Croatian island of la Galiola. Party at 3.36pm on Friday afternoon with fresh wind coming from the northern quadrants, rotating towards the south during the night and decreasing in intensity. A situation anticipated by the forecasts prepared by the meteorologist Alessandro Pezzoli on behalf of the Circolo Velico Ravennate, who made them available to the competing teams.
As mentioned, it was Blue who won the line honours, finishing his effort at 1.12pm, completing the course in 21h36m02s, significantly improving the record set years ago by Strale, whose owners, Bandini-Bruni, animated the awards ceremony, telling the history of Galiola and personally delivering the record trophy to the Blue crew.
The winners of the voucher relating to the Road To Barcelona project, promoted by Unicredit and aimed at rewarding the two sailors between the ages of 16 and 25 who were the first to reach the finish line, were Alessandro Mazza and Ludovico Zambelli, engaged on board Drago Volante. Both will be invited to Barcelona to attend the Unicredit Youth America’s Cup, scheduled between 20 and 22 September 2024.
The successes in the various groups went to Blu 3 (Classe B) by Andrea Mancini, Drago Volante (Class C) by Antonella Gismondi and Blue (Class 0) by Bonson Mariotti.
“This edition of the Galiola was undoubtedly a success: we recorded many registrations and a particularly high overall level of boats and crews. In addition to the charm of the route, this excellent result is undoubtedly determined by the choice to race in corrected time: the calculation systems are now reliable to the point of guaranteeing complete fairness and thus rewarding the most deserving team” commented Giovanni Ceccarelli, councilor of the Ravennate Sailing Club.
“As the Italian Offshore Sailing Union we are very happy with the success achieved by this edition of the Galiola: it is a regatta in which we believe and which we wanted in the calendar of the Italian Offshore Championship to balance the number of races held between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian Sea. If you think about it, it is fascinating that boats destined to never meet on the same regatta field can compete in the same classification: this is precisely what happens in the Italian Offshore Championship. In view of the next edition of the Galiola we are developing some ideas: among these the possibility of opening the regatta also to the Mini 650 which, in addition to competing in the classification on corrected time, could make it a valid test for their circuit” commented Fabrizio Gagliardi, president of the UVAI.
Having archived the 2024 edition of the Galiola with the awards ceremony held in the Minardi Hall of the Circolo Velico Ravennate, the Via Molo Dalmazia association looks to its next commitments: already June 29th, in fact, will be Festivela time.
