FlyingNikka is ready to fly again
by FlyingNikka 1 May 18:13 BST
3-5 May 2024
FlyingNikka © Fabio Taccola
The flying maxi FlyingNikka is ready to get back in the water for a new season of regattas.
Three appointments are planned for what is to all extents and purposes the first yacht in a new generation of full foiling regatta sailing boats, starting from the Spring Regattas held next weekend in Portofino, Liguria, a fixture that brings together some of the world's most important and fastest Maxi yachts in the Gulf of Tigullio.
FlyingNikka will race from Friday to Sunday, off the coast between Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino, racing against a fleet of over 30 Maxis and aiming to win the scheduled races in real time, but above all testing the modifications made to the foils during the winter at the base in Punta Ala (Tuscany), which have further enhanced the boat's performance, especially in lighter winds.
"We intervened according to schedule, because a boat like FlyingNikka is subject to constant technical developments and, on the basis of the huge amount of data collected last year, during the first complete regatta season, we had the opportunity to improve its performance in certain areas and in specific weather conditions, while maintaining, indeed further increasing, our overall performance," explains Roberto Lacorte, owner of the FlyingNikka project and one of the two helmsmen on board along with Lorenzo Bressani (the other four members of the crew are the Team Manager Alessio Razeto, Andrea Fornaro, Enrico Zennaro and Lorenzo de Felice).
The generally light winds across the Gulf of Tigullio area are therefore an ideal test bench for FlyingNikka and her crew, who after Portofino will be busy with two offshore regattas, the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar (starting on 30 May in Livorno and arriving in Punta Ala after sailing through the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago) and the Loro Piana Giraglia (start on 12 June from Saint Tropez arriving in Genoa, passing by the island of Giraglia).
But there's more. The team's plans also include a record attempt in a stretch of the Mediterranean, which will be confirmed during the season.
Alongside FlyingNikka, racing for the Yacht Club Repubblica Marinara di Pisa and the Yacht Club Punta Ala, the partners TAG Heuer - in this respect, during the races each team member wears a TAG Heuer Aquaracer Solargraph watch, a timepiece that represents the ultimate sporting performance and durability - and Cetilar®, the brand of the pharmaceutical company PharmaNutra, which works throughout the sports world with major sponsorships and medical partnerships.
The other partners are B&G for the on-board electronics, North Sails for the sails, and the yards in Punta Ala Costa Etrusca and Marina di Punta Ala in Tuscany, the team's base.
FlyingNikka is a single-hull just under 19 metres long, designed by Mark Mills' firm, with T-foils, the evolution of the boats used in the last America's Cup but designed for offshore regattas. This "flying" boat can reach speeds of 40 knots, and in the last edition of the famous Maxi regattas in Porto Cervo, last September, it won the trophy as the fastest boat in the competition, in front of Maxi yachts twice as big, having dominated the three coastal regattas fought, finishing way ahead of the rest of the fleet.
"FlyingNikka's performance is there for all to see, but can be improved further. Our aim this year was to fly through lighter winds and, after the first tests in Punta Ala, we are pretty sure that we have done a great job," Lacorte concludes.