Swan brings back one-design racing

After a year-long hiatus for most racing fleets, the Swan Tuscany Challenge was among the first events to see international one-design competition in the Clubswan fleets.

Held in the sheltered Gulf of Follonica, the event hosted 23 owners and crews for four days of racing based out of the Marina di Scarlino. Covid testing, social distancing and a curtailed social programme all made for a different event than in previous years, but the competition level remained high, with big name sailors such as Francesco Bruni, Iker Martinez, Ross Halcrow and Sofia Bekatorou joining the crews.

“This is what you need to do after the AC when you’re coming from a certain world back to a normal displacement world,” says Vasco Vascotto, tactician on Luna Rossa for the last America’s Cup, who calls tactics on the Clubswan 50 Bronenosec. “I’m excited, very excited. We need to go sailing – owners need to go sailing. We need to come back to normality.”

Among the 13 Clubswan 50s, competition boiled down to a duel between Swan owner Leonardo Ferragamo’s Cuordileone, and Hatari (GER), owned by Marcus Brennecke. Ferragmo came out on top. Racing was much more open in the 10-strong Clubswan 36 fleet. The class was only established in 2019 and half the teams were newcomers this year with little time to work up the boats last season. The result came down to the last leg of the last race, when Andrea Lacorte’s Vitamina took the win. “The boat is damn fast,” said Lacorte afterwards. “The fleet is very closely matched – you can be first or last.”

The Clubswan 36 was designed by Juan Kouyoumdijan, with its main point of innovation being the long, curved ‘C-foil’ that runs through the boat amidships.

Rather than creating flight, the foil provides some lift and a lot of stability. According to Swan, it mitigates leeway when beating, stabilises the boat when gybing and reduces displacement by about 40% on a reach, enabling the boat to ‘skim’ above 15 knots.

“It’s technical sailing. You have to use that know-how to make this kind of boat fly,” said Giacomo Loro Piana, owner of Sease. “In training in 30 knots of wind, we touched 25 knots, but the boat was perfectly stable – super precise. It was fun. I don’t think there’s any way back from foils. Even regular cruising boats – they’ll change standards of sailing for everyone.”