A regatta dedicated especially to those who spend their summer on a cruising boat, just as Mario Formenton (the man “with the sea in his eyes”) remembered, which has become a fixed appointment for many friends over the past thirty years. Both cruising and racing boats are welcomed in order to give all owners and sailors the opportunity to spend a day among the islands of the Maddalena Archipelago, with that touch of healthy competition and the chance of stories and banter among the competitors on and off the dock in the days that follow.

Mattia Formenton, the owner of Swan 54 Mohbarack V, provides a preview of the atmosphere at the forthcoming Trofeo Mario Formenton. The event is scheduled to occur in Porto Rafael, Sardinia, on August 20th.

“Starting with four friends’ boats in 1989, we have now reached the thirty-third edition of the Formenton Trophy with an average of over 40 participants. The regatta is in memory of my father Mario, a man with an overwhelming passion for sailing who loved the waters of the Maddalena Archipelago, where the course takes place. From the beginning, the Swan has been a formidable competitor. Among the first four racers was Oracabessa, a splendid Swan 411 (still in perfect shape and then owned by Vittorio Ammannato) that always seemed unbeatable, especially upwind. It’s no coincidence that it was the first boat to consistently win the Trophy with three victories. Many years and many boats have competed since then, but I won’t hide that when I finally joined the Swan owners’ world in 2018, the memory of those times and that boat certainly played a role. Beauty, classicism, perhaps even finally a revenge? Who can say… Certainly, it went well, not only because, with my son Pietro on board, we managed to bring home the victory (in the ORC class) after a few years, but especially because the recovery of that memory was largely successful. I think that’s a great achievement.”