21st edition of the Noirmoutier Classic

 

Congratulations to Kostia Belkin and his crew on Viola, skippered by Fabien Desprès, who won the 21st Noirmoutier Classic at the beginning of August, held in the Baie de Bougneuf (Vendée). With six race wins under her belt, the supremely elegant 1908 gaff cutter, classed as a historic monument and flying the YCM burgee, beat the legendary Pen Duick (1898), another Fife design which was Eric Tabarly’s first sailing boat.

Viola returns to the Mediterranean at the beginning of September to take part in Les Voiles d’Antibes, the Régates Royales de Cannes and Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, as consolation for having to postpone her American campaign on the US East Coast which has been rescheduled for 2022.