Panerai Radiomir 8 Days GMT for Cellini (PAM00266)

Panerai - Classic Yachts Challenge 2009

In 2009, for the fifth consecutive year, some of the most prestigious yachting locations on the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean will be hosting the international regatta circuit for vintage and classic sailing boats, sponsored by Officine Panerai. A now historic event, as well as an opportunity to see the most beautiful classic boats still seafaring, assembled together and in action, in locations that have marked the history of sailing.
The Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge 2009 takes place from April to September, and this year includes three regattas in the Mediterranean (Antibes and Cannes on the French Riviera and Porto Rotondo in Sardinia) as well as four regattas overseas (Antigua in the Caribbean, Nantucket and Newport's double event on the Eastern US Coast).
Considering both the Mediterranean and the American stages, 2009 will see the participation of around 350 vintage yachts, amounting to a total of over 1500 crew members, taking part in at least 15 regattas.
The overall winners of each individual stage in the two categories, Vintage (boats built before 1950) and Classic (boats from between 1950 and 1975), will be awarded a watch specially created by Officine Panerai as an exclusive limited edition: for 2009 this watch is the new Luminor 1950 Regatta Rattrapante 44mm, DLC, split-seconds chronograph conceived as a highly specialised instrument for the needs of yachtsmen. In both of the abovementioned categories, the best placed crews from among the winners of the individual Mediterranean stages will win the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge Trophy, which will be awarded on the occasion of the Regates Royales in Cannes, the final race in the circuit.

The Mediterranean regattas, under the aegis of the CIM (Comitato Internazionale del Mediterraneo), will be organized in collaboration with the major national classic yachting associations including AIVE (Associazione Italiana Vele d'Epoca) founded in 1982 in Italy and AFYT (Association Française des Yachts de Tradition), established in 1994 in France. For all yachting enthusiasts, there is a little known aspect related to these regattas. Anyone with basic sailing experience will have the opportunity to go on board and feel all the excitement of sailing on a vintage boat. All they need do is introduce themselves to the boat owners at the quayside on the day prior to the regatta and ask permission to go on board. Indeed many of the crews are informal and made up of families and some boat owners are always on the lookout for people offering their help in rigging at sea. A noticeboard is always set up on the quayside to enable those offering a place on board to get in touch with those volunteering their help.
In 2009 Officine Panerai, the fine watch-making company founded in Florence in 1860, celebrates its first five years as sponsor of this prestigious yachting circuit, a partnership which will certainly continue in the future, due to the profound values they share, the linkage with the sea, beauty, history and age-old skills.
Officine Panerai's passion and commitment to safeguarding and spreading the culture of vintage yachting also lie at the heart of the purchase of Eilean, the 22 metre Bermudian ketch built by legendary Scottish boatyard Fife in 1936, the same year as the first Panerai watch.
Rediscovered almost abandoned in Antigua in 2007, thanks to the efforts of Officine Panerai, Eilean was recovered and as of the past two years can be found at the Cantiere Navale Francesco Del Carlo boatyard in Viareggio. The restoration work has almost been completed using original materials from the era which will allow the vessel, from next year, to plough through the waves of seas around the world and race in regattas in forthcoming editions of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge.
 

Calendar

Mediterranean Sea
• Antibes (Côte d'Azur - France)
LES VOILES D'ANTIBES
3 - 7 June 2009
Fourteenth edition. On the quays in the old town around fifty vintage, classic, Spirit of Tradition and metric class yachts are expected.
www.voilesdantibes.com
• Porto Rotondo (Sassari - Italy)
VELE D'EPOCA A PORTO ROTONDO
10 - 13 September 2009
For the third time, Officine Panerai is sponsoring the Vintage Yachts regattas in Sardinia, that take place in odd years in alternation with the famous Imperia meetings. Around fifty boats will be taking part.
www.ycpr.it
• Cannes (Côte d'Azur - France)
ReGATES ROYALES
21 - 26 September 2009
Thirty-first edition with the participation of around a hundred vintage boats and eighty Dragons. The final stage of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge and the awards ceremony with trophies for the winners in each class.
www.regatesroyales.com 
 
United States and the Caribbean
• Antigua (Independent State of Antigua & Barbuda - Caribbean)
CLASSIC YACHT REGATTA
16 - 21 April 2009
Twenty-second edition. Over sixty vintage and classic yachts expected, divided into ten or so classes.
www.antiguaclassics.com
• Newport (Rhode Island - USA)
ROBERT TIEDEMANN CLASSIC WEEK END
27 - 28 June 2009
Newport celebrates classic yachting with a regatta on the first day and a parade on the second. www.moy.org
• Nantucket (Massachusetts - USA)
THE OPERA HOUSE CUP
7 - 16 August 2009
Thirty-seventh edition of the Opera House Cup, dedicated to wooden boats, the grand finale of
Nantucket Race Week. Around sixty Yachts expected.
www.operahousecup.org
• Newport (Rhode Island - USA)
MUSEUM OF YACHTING CLASSIC YACHT REGATTA
5 - 6 September 2009
Thirtieth edition. Featuring regattas between vintage yachts and a parade.
www.moy.org

The 2009 fleet

Aurica schooners, Bermudian ketches, yawls, sloops, cutters - these are some of the sailing boat classes the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge offers the opportunity to admire and learn about. Over 90 percent of these boats were built of wood using traditional planking techniques and almost all of them have in the past twenty years undergone major or minor restoration work, without which they would not have been able to continue sailing.
In the Mediterranean, the greatest concentration of vintage yachts can be found between Italian regions Tuscany and Liguria and the French Côte d'Azur. The most part of those vessels, known as the "ladies of the sea", were created from the pen of masters of world boat design such as Scotsman Fife of Fairlie, the Americans Olin Stephens (who died in 2008 at 100 years of age), Camper & Nicholson and Nathaniel G. Herreshoff, or Englishman Laurent Giles. Among classic yachts distinction surely goes to those built by the Sangermani boatyard of Lavagna, in Liguria, an undiminished legend in Italian boatbuilding. Today all these boats represent living testimony to over a century of yachting history.

A selection the of partecipants

The historic 23 metre Stormvogel from 1961, the floating set of the movie "Dead Calm" starring a young Nicole Kidman, following its appearance in the Classic Yacht Regatta in Antigua, will leave for the Mediterranean where it will take part in all the stages of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge 2009. Stormvogel will be attempting to repeat its 2008 victory in the 'Classic Yacht' category. Also competing in Antigua will be the 53 metre steel vessel Eleonora, a spectacular reconstruction created in Holland in 2000 of the American schooner Westward from 1910.
Amongst the giants expected at the Mediterranean regattas, in addition to the 46 metre Lulworth from 1920, is Zaca, usually based in Monte Carlo. This majestic aurica schooner of 43 metres this year marks its 80th year since its launch in California in 1929. Zaca, which has a past as an oceanographic survey vessel, was for years the floating residence of Hollywood legend Errol Flynn and hosted Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth for the making of the movie "The Lady from Shanghai". The same birthday will be celebrated by La Spina, a 12 metre International Tonnage vessel in its second season on the classic yacht regatta circuit.
A unique opportunity is offered by Moonbeam IV from 1914, the spectacular 33 metre aurica cutter which was used by Prince Ranier of Monaco and Grace Kelly for their honeymoon. The yacht is at the disposal of anyone wishing to hire it 'by day' on the occasion of the regattas. Around twenty people can be received on board to experience the excitement of regatta racing together with the crews.
Also the wooden Navy vessels are making ready to take part in the new edition of the Panerai circuit. All of them have in fact renewed their Tonnage Certificates for the current year. The yawls Stella Polare (1965), Corsaro II (1961) and Capricia (1963) will line up alongside the Bermudian cutters Sagittario (1972) and Chaplin (1974).
The parade of honour will go to those boats which in 2009 celebrate their centenary. In addition to the 18 metre Varuna there is Tuiga, the 22 metre vessel owned by Prince Albert of Monaco, launched at Scottish boatyard Fife in 1909. Equipped as an aurica cutter it belongs to the 15 Metre International Tonnage class. Its direct competitor in regattas is near twin The Lady Anne, another Fife product from 1912.
The Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge is not without so-called 'eighteen hundreds', yachts built two centuries ago. Amongst the leading title-winners is 13 metre Bona Fide from 1899 and the 33 metre aurica ketch Black Swan, launched in the same year.
A new entry is Peter, a 15 metre yawl from 1939, while a yacht well known on the circuit is the California 32 Amorita from 1937, which won second place in the 'Vintage' category in 2008. Once again this year Amorita could clash with its "rival twin" Cholita, the California 32 which won the 2005 edition of the circuit.
Also appearing in the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge is the 15 metre Delfino, the 19 metre Samurai, Bufeo Blanco, Emeraude, Galvana, Manta, Swala, Vistona, Susanna II and Patience, and cutter Marconi from 1931, returning to the seas in 2007 after a compete restoration at the Francesco Del Carlo boatyard in Viareggio.
Among the other yachts taking part in the circuit is the aurica ketch Tirrenia II from 1914, and Kipawa, the fast Norwegian racer from 1937. Also Rowdy from 1916 will be attempting to win again the Panerai Trophy in the 'Vintage' category, as it did last year.
One of the minor yachts taking part is Astarte II, an 11 metre vessel from 1970. Designed by Trieste-born Carlo Sciarrelli, the most important Italian designer of classic boats who died in 2006, it will have a new wooden mast replacing the previous aluminium one. The queen of the small vintage boats however will be Halcyon from 1920, a half-cabin vessel rigged as an aurica sloop with a length of 7.62 metres, belonging to the Wianno Senior class created in the USA in 1914, requiring little maintenance and transportable on a trailer. It was on an identical yacht that American president John Fitzgerald Kennedy learned to sail.

Luminor 1950 Regatta Rattrapante 44 mm, DLC

Created in a limited edition of 500, the Luminor 1950 Regatta Rattrapante 44 mm, DLC is a split-seconds chronograph, accompanied by a chronometer certificate which indicates the final 5 minutes preceding the starting signal of a regatta. This is a specialized model which, not just in name but also in its technical content, was conceived as a genuine instrument for the yachtsman.

Compared to the 2008 edition, the new Regatta features different and unusual workmanship on the case which gives the watch a black colour through the innovative coating known as DLC. This acronym stands for Diamond-Like-Carbon and indicates that the metal has undergone a process that makes it even more hard and resistant, especially to corrosion. This is a fundamental property for yachtsmen who are constantly in contact with seawater. In addition, DLC coating makes the metal much less exposed to scratching and streaking, much more common with other metal treatment techniques.
The case, measuring 44mm in diameter, is the same as the classic Luminor 1950 and the DLC coating is extended also to the three push buttons, the crown and the protecting lever. This latter feature is the element which most bly identifies Luminor watches and it has the dual function of protecting the crown and guaranteeing its water resistance. Water proof to 100 metres (10 bars), the watch also features a screw down back, also blackcoated, with the event logo engraved, the year of the edition and the numbers identifying the model and series.
The dial, covered by 2mm thick anti-reflective sapphire crystal, has a black background with a Clou de Paris decoration of dense checkerwork giving it overall depth and highlighting the two Arab numerals and the stud indexes, luminescent like the hour and minute hands. The first of the two chronograph hands is blue-coloured with only a luminous dot at the tip. The tachymetric scale is impressed on the raised edge of the dial, while the 5 minutes preceding the starting signal are also highlighted in blue on the small dial of the minute counter.
The movement of the Luminor 1950 Regatta Rattrapante 44 mm, DLC is an automatic calibre - the OP XVIII - 13¼ lignes in diameter, with double columns wheel, features which represent the distinguishing element of high quality. Rattrapante is a type of chronograph that permits the timing of two events starting in the same instant and this is achieved with a second hand, which can be stopped and then realigned with the first while the latter continues running. The third push button, at 8 o'clock, stops and realigns the second hand. With its polished and decorated surfaces and levers, the movement of the Regatta also has the official chronometer certificate issued by C.O.S.C.