The Barcolana is a regatta organized in the Bay of Trieste since 1969. Every year, thousands of sailors sail to the Italian coast for a historic course on the second Sunday of October, called the Autumn Cup. But this edition - organised from 29 September to 8 October 2017 - broke all records!
The organization registered 2101 registrations from 26 countries. Hundreds of thousands of people joined the shores of Trieste, making the Barcolana the busiest regatta in the world, and earning it a place in the Guinness Book of Records. The Italian race thus overtakes the Danish Round Zealand regatta, which took place on 21 June 1984 and recorded 2072 entries.
This is the first time there have been so many boats together in the waters of the Gulf. Most of the entries came from Italy - 1836 Italians - and 265 sailing enthusiasts from 26 countries including Chile, Argentina and of course several European countries. The organization announced 25,000 sailors at sea and some one hundred thousand people ashore, celebrating on the waterfront. A record all the more impressive, as all the boats are starting the race on the same starting line!
Even though participants can register until the last moment, this record was already surpassed on October 7 at 6:05 p.m. with more than 2072 registrations registered.
In 2001, 1968 boats lined up on the start line, setting a first participation record. Sixteen years later, this record has been broken with the psychological threshold of 2000 participations exceeded.
photo credits : StudioBorlenghi
