The Magic Sailing Team has had a number of leading yachtsmen in its ranks, including Roberto Ferrarese, the helmsman of international fame from Bari, specialized above all in one-on-one races - namely match racing. The Team snapped up an Italian title at the Italian Championships in Rimini in 1999 and was runner-up in the 2000 and 2001 editions, held at the Island of Elba and Riva del Garda respectively, confirming that the Magic Sailing Team is also well prepared in this enthralling speciality.

 

For experts: match racing schools

Learn how to race like they do in the America’s Cup match races: two boats, one pitted against the other. And if those boats just happen to be the “jewels” of the recent America’s Cup edition, well, the idea becomes even more enticing - a chance to dream of experiencing, first hand, the emotions of night racing on Luna Rossa and Mascalzone Latino, which will be starring in the America’s Cup 2000 race starting in October. Match racing is a difficult and fascinating speciality and now expert sailing enthusiasts in Italy, too, are given the chance to measure their racing skills in an authentic America’s Cup school - the America's Cup Sail Academy, which has just been founded in Genoa. Buoys and strategies are also on the agenda in Dudi Coletti’s Sailing Roma school (he was aboard Moro di Venezia at San Diego), and on Lake Maggiore with Top Vela run by Tiziano Nava, Azzurra’s tactician. To start match racing from scratch and learn the starting line secrets and tricks of the trade, there are courses organized by Roberto Ferrarese, helmsman on the Magic Sailing Team’s Shining: based in Bisceglie (Sea Scuola di Mare) intensive three-day courses on 4 boats. Courses (frequency: approx. one a month) are also held in other places.