Left: racing around Italy in one-design ClubSwan 36s… that would surely tempt you? Offshore races during the final era of the IOR Ton Cup classes were spectacularly close, nail-biting affairs with boats finishing overlapped after several hundred miles the norm rather than the exception; so a 1,150nm course in one-designs taking in some of Europe’s most testing sailing conditions – currents and wind – now that would be something special. The Class40 (above) is already signed up – mindful the event will be warmer than many of their traditional courses. There will obviously be IRC and ORC handicap divisions but if you are a one-design sailor talk to your class captain… this course was tailormade for a memorable, tactically exhausting yet not too uncomfortable one-design battle
But more likely during this race at times the competitors will see
the well-known wind known as the Mistral (NW) west of the Italian mainland, where it can be quite a handful, and as the Maestral or Maestro in the Adriatic, where it is mainly a pleasant afternoon thermal breeze. The Maestral tends to swing north the further north one gets. Finally, there seems to be no ‘formal’ name for the moments
without any breeze, but I am sure that during the race a few will spring to mind… Do not anger the wind gods, though – without their help Mediterranean life would be quite different. The Mediterranean has been the path to wealth for at least 5,000
years for many of the so-called thalassocracies, sea empires, hardly relying on land domination but mainly on their fleets to control trade and territories in the Mediterranean Sea. Like the Minoans from Crete, Phoenicia, numerous city states in ancient Greece, one of them of course Athens, and during the Middle Ages the republics of Venice, Genoa and Pisa. The sea was apparently not big enough for Genoa and Venice as the two republics fought each other for about 150 years from the mid-13th century. Genoa never fully recov- ered from the cost of these wars but its large port is still the basis of the vibrant city Genoa is today. Also Venice declined, not just because of the cost of its many
wars but also after the Portuguese Vasco da Gama found a sea route to India via the Cape of Good Hope, destroying Venice’s trade monopoly. The Age of Exploration saw newcomers like Portugal, Spain, the British and the Dutch take possession of the high seas and new trade routes, establishing large colonial empires. Venice’s hybrid oar/sail vessels were not suited to cross oceans.
In the Med the Egyptians and the Minoans were the first to combine oars and sails successfully. Rowing boats made of papyrus to facil- itate trade along the River Nile are depicted as early as 6,000BC. With time papyrus was replaced by wood and sails appeared, enabling the Egyptians too to navigate the Med and trade overseas. The destruction of the Minoan civilization around 1,400BC and
the decline of the Egyptian empire made room for the Phoenicians, the best seafarers and shipbuilders of the ancient world, to take over their trade routes. They are credited with developing bireme and trireme galleys of up to 30m in which the oars were arranged in two or three banks, perfected later on by the Romans. Ships built purely for trade would be rounder and wider and mainly
powered by square-rigged sails. The galley remained in use in various forms until the early 19th century in warfare, trade and… piracy. From the 17th century, however, sailing ships and hybrid ships like the xebec, with triangular lateen sails, started to replace the galleys, also for naval warfare.
The Mediterranean has seen an amazing number of wars and
sea battles. Piracy was a constant threat for thousands of years, also during the Roman empire. Often pirates were the main agents of the slave trade. The longest-lasting pirate haven in the Medi - terranean, till deep into the 19th century, was the city of Ulcinj in present-day Montenegro, which is now a popular tourist destination famous for its white sandy beaches. Finally, Trieste, the finish of the RoundItaly. Its port has always
been important as the gateway from central Europe to the Med. Many fought to possess Trieste but from 1382 until 1918 it was mainly part of the Habsburg empire. WW1 put an end to that and Italy annexed Trieste and large parts of Yugoslavia in 1920 (via the Treaty of Rapallo). Most of the annexed Yugoslavian territory was reunited with
Yugoslavia after WW2 and Trieste with a small stretch of coast for a period of seven years became a free city under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council, the Free Territory of Trieste. When in 1954 the Free Territory of Trieste got dissolved the city of Trieste was assigned to Italy and the territory south of Trieste to Yugoslavia. Nowadays owners and crews of pleasure yachts from all over
the world can enter the RoundItaly and travel to Genoa safely just carrying their bags, a passport and some Covid paperwork, board their yachts and set off without any fear of being attacked, robbed, enslaved or killed. Just over 160 years ago Italy was not even united yet and there
was constant fighting and rearranging of borders in and around what is now northern Italy. When hiking on the rail just close your eyes for a moment and think of the days you would have carried weapons in those waters to defend yourself against pirates. Or go a bit further back and imagine being on one of the oars on the lowest deck of a galley in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) where well over 400 warships almost entirely propelled by around 60,000 oarsmen battled for supremacy of the Mediterranean Sea. The noise and smell of war, blood and water dripping down from
the upper decks, seawater coming in from being rammed or hit by cannonballs, no idea of the greater picture, frightening. The Ottoman admirals trying to motivate their mainly Christian slave rowers by promising them freedom in the event of an Ottoman victory. The Spanish admiral and leader of the Christian fleet, John of
Austria, just told his men ‘There is no paradise for cowards’. Am sure that in the case of the RoundItaly, once in Trieste, there will be a bed and a shower, some fine trophies for the winners and a good party for all. Life could be worse. Rob Weiland, TP52 and Maxi72 class manager
SEAHORSE 39
q
RICK TOMLINSON
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