Tuiga – English campaign

Sunday 4th June 2023. Yacht Club de Monaco’s flagship, the gaff cutter Tuiga (1909) is off again, this time to the other side of the English Channel. After two wins in a row during the all-ladies regatta Les Dames de Saint-Tropez in April in France, then the Grandi Regate Internazionali of Sanremo in Italy in May, this is a more complicated trip to England. It involves the 15M IR being loaded at Fos-sur-mer on 2nd June onto the 118m Dutch freighter, Trade Navigator, that is taking her across to Falmouth for the start of the English campaign.

Tuiga arrived under own steam at Fos-sur-Mer where the crew and dockers worked together to ensure the operation went smoothly assisted by two cranes with a lifting capacity of 60 tonnes on the Trade Navigator, enough to lift the 40-tonne Tuiga out of the water. A diver had already checked the straps were in the right place on the hull. The yacht, mast still place, was lifted and lowered gently into a cradle on the deck and secured by the dockers. Trade Navigator cast off the same day and is due to arrive in Falmouth this week.