Finding Moksha: Sardinia

I was lucky enough to get onto Zefira for a trip from Antibes, France to Sardinia, Italy for two regattas, the Dubois Cup and the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta. Both attract some of the nicest, and biggest superyachts in the world and provided for some very cool racing.

Even though most of the controls are push button, there is still a massive crew needed, most of the time literally just for sail handling. Joining the usual usual crew for the racing were 9 Italian professionals, many of whom have been involved in the America's Cup, Whitbread Races, any many other top level events. These guys along with a number of other specialists like sail makers, rig pros, and boat builders lead to our race crew numbers to be pushing into the mid 20's. Then on top of that was the owner and their guests plus other "VIP's" meant that most days we were leaving the dock with over 40 people on the boat!

The biggest shock for me in Sardinia was wind, and plenty of it, of the scheduled 6 days of racing, 3 were cancelled due to being too much wind. We had a few other practice sails and peaked with a top speed of just over 16 knots with sneaking in the the 15's a common occurrence. For those playing at home, you may think that it's not that fast, but a 50 metre long boat with a 62 metre high rig, and weighing in at approximately 400 tonnes - stuff gets real very quickly, and having genoa sheets with a breaking strain of 70 tonnes, it isn't rocket science that pushing the limits is the reality of these things.

After each day of racing, most of us would make it back to our villa's for a traditional 3-course dinner cooked by our two momma's, who waited on us for the 2 weeks we were there. The nights usually escalated as the endless bottles of wine and lemoncello would take a hold of a sun sapped bodies, only to jump into bed and wake up a few hours later to do it all again.

Outside of sailing, we won the soccer tournament between the crews, I also crashed my scooter in the rain whilst on my way to a presentation dinner - surprisingly it was only a few grazes, and a broken mirror. Driving to different towns, trying to explain that I needed a new mirror was tough, and after 2 days of looking and trying 4 different places, 20 euros was all it took to get it sorted.

Anyway I know this passage has been a bit fragmented, but I am in a town square and it is distracting. I best be off.

Just a few post-scripts for those in Brisbane - The Gateway Bridge has a clearance underneath it of 55 metres, meaning our boat would not make it under - hopefully that gives you a better understanding of just how big these yachts are.