Update
CIAO VALENTIN – Giuliano Luzzatto
At the 2015 ISAF conference in Sanya seven more inspi- rational sailors were inducted into World Sailing’s Hall of Fame. Dennis Conner, Alessandra Sensini, Harold Vanderbilt, Sir Peter Blake, Buddy Melges, Valentin Mankin and Torben Grael join other sail- ing legends including Olin Stephens, Paul Elvström and Eric Tabarly.
Italy’s Alessandra Sensini is the most success- ful female Olympic sailor in history, with four medals, one gold, one silver and two bronze in three different windsurfing classes. During the induction, however, the Italian Olympic sailing community also took time to recognise as one of its own the great Valentin Mankin, who passed away in 2014.
‘I see the wind as others see colours,’ he would say jokingly to those who asked about the key to his success. In reality, it was a passion for the sea and total dedication to his dream that were behind the four Olympic medals that Mankin won for the USSR. After his own Olympic career concluded Mankin joined the Soviet Sports Committee as Director of Aquatic Sports. Born in Kiev in the Ukraine in 1938, he had already qualified for the Rome Olympics in 1960 when he fell victim to his own joke in a restaurant; a joke that would lead to a government ban which prohibited him from leaving the USSR to go to Rome.
‘If I don’t bring home a medal I prefer not to return,’ he joked over a meal with friends. Soon afterwards an ambitious civil servant brought the little ‘joke’ to the attention of the Soviet authorities… This great sailor would then have to wait for the Mexico City Games in 1968 to win his first gold medal, in the Finn, followed by gold and silver, respectively, in the Tempest in 1972 and 1976, and concluding with his third gold medal in the Moscow Games in 1980, this time in the Star. Mankin remains the only competitor to have won three gold medals in three different classes. He arrived in Italy in 1988 as the chief coach of the Italian Sailing Federation (FIV), thanks to the goodwill of the chairman at the time, Sergio Gaibisso. ‘I needed help to get my nephew into the Gaslini Hospital in Genoa and, thanks to the sensitivity of Gaibisso, my nephew was given proper care and I am able to be in Italy today. ‘Sergio co-ordinated an agreement between the Italian National Olympic Committee and the Soviet Committee which allowed me to come here in the role of technical director of the Italian national team.’
Mankin began his work here at the Olympic Training Centre in Livorno and was soon building what became a new era of success for Italian sailing. The Bruni brothers, Matteo Ivaldi, Paolo Cian, Devoti, Negri, Zandonà as well as Alessandra Sensini herself; all these and many other great Italian sportsmen and women had good reason to mourn the loss of our kind and generous ‘national’ sporting mentor.
PORT LA FORÊT, HOLA – Carlos Pich
Three years in the planning, Anna Corbella has now opened her Barcelona training centre for Spanish shorthanded racers, with the initial focus on the Mini 6.50 class.
Anna first announced the idea after finishing her second Barcelona World Race; now she is offering ambitious offshore sailors something that she admits she too would have benefited from when preparing for her first Mini Transat back in 2009. Such an operation has never before existed in Spain. The Base Mini Barcelona is in Port Forum, 1km north of Barcelona’s Olympic harbour. Port Forum already houses the Barcelona International Sailing Centre, whose facilities will now be combined with other amenities suitable for bigger boats provided by the marina.
Barcelona Race organisers at the Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona were ready to support the Base Mini initiative but the bureaucracy proved overwhelming and Anna decided to go it alone.
12 SEAHORSE
Among other ‘local’ issues, the FNOB is busy organising new management, negotiating with City Hall about sites and finalising discussions about national and regional tax exemptions for sporting bodies… Spanish rules.
Corbella’s model is of course inspired by the successful French training model of Port La Forêt. Most of the Spanish sailors involved in the recent Mini Transat now plan to relocate their boats to Base Mini, which benefits from a nice climate, easy logistics (aside from that paperwork) and the convenience of being in the unofficial Mediterranean capital of Barcelona. Mini sailors from colder countries, take note – you will all be made welcome.
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Doubling down… First… Morgan Lagravière pulls out of the TJV after suffering serious structural damage to the new Safran Then… to sail the return leg from St Barts and qualify for the Vendée Globe the team charter him another Imoca 60 Which… duly suffers a failure of the canting keel system forcing a very frustrated French soloist into the Azores for repairs For… goodness’ sake Brilliant… GBR shorthanded skipper Phil Sharp Previous winner… of the Route Du Rhum Class40s Is currently… setting a ‘benchmark’ for a south-north passage up the UK’s west coast Oh… dear Please… will somebody give a very talented solo skipper a decent Imoca 60 On… a postcard please Or maybe… in an envelope Approaching the millennium… over 900 examples of the miraculous J/70 have now been sold ’nother good job… Rick Tomlinson and Nikos Zagas took the two top prizes at the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image Awards in Geneva Beautiful mind… maths teacher and five-time circumnavigator Jean-Luc van den Heede has entered the 2018 Golden Globe Race Twenty-three… other sailors have also now paid the AUS$3,000 registration fee America’s Cup World… and nothing is ever quite as it seems Bermuda… wins a Supreme Court ruling around environmental concerns over the new Cup port that is being built In Blighty… the local council is moaning because allegedly the organisers of July’s AC World Series in Portsmouth forgot to apply for all of the right permissions While… Southampton is also having a bit of a moan about the ACWS going to Portsmouth Guys… you once had the Volvo and you were happy to let that go You… also had the BT Challenge
Even… the bl**dy Balloon Festival slipped away from you At least… you’ve still got a few Titanicartefacts Bermuda… is it true that net visitors to the island during the ACWS actually totalled a number no greater than 1,150? The… locals loved it Great result… Leigh McMillan and The Wave Muscat topped the 2015 Extreme Sailing Series by winning the final Act in Sydney Good hire… by Sir Ben Also… a good hire, Kiwi Adam Minoprio joins Team France Rainbow… Warrior It gets better… the US$1million to the winner of the 2016 World Match Racing Tour we knew about The US$2million… total prize purse we were not so clear about Seahorseunderlings… where is my match racing suit? Whoops… it is of course Larry Huntington who recently won Sailor of the Month Not… Larry Huntingdon Who had… the very good grace not to point this out himself So... an even more deserving winner Engineers only… Jo Richards’ 40ft racing ‘rotivator’ is up for sale Now over to…
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scuttlebutteurope.com For other… New Year bargains
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