The Italian Royal Yacht Club was founded in Genoa in 1879 and re-founded, with the fall of the monarchy in 1946, as an Italian Yacht Club. Since the first regatta, held on August 8, 1880, in the Gulf of La Spezia, with "just" 177 boats, the Club has now passed to over 1200 members and has established itself at European and world level over the years.
Yacht Club Italiano History
The Italian Yacht Club is the oldest sailing club in the country and one of the oldest in the Mediterranean: founded in Genoa in 1879 and has around 1,100 members.
The history of the Club begins in Genoa in the late nineteenth century, when Vittorio Augusto Vecchi and a group of sailing enthusiasts decided to found, with the adhesion of His Majesty, King Umberto I, the Italian Royal Yacht Club.
Since the first inaugural regatta of 8 August 1880, which opened the Club's sporting season, with 177 boats racing in the Gulf of La Spezia, the Italian Yacht Club has always had as its objectives the spread of yachting, the organization of national and international regattas and education of young people. The association process with other clubs (Naples, Palermo, Trieste, Venice) began in the early 1930s from the Italian Yacht Club, which led to the birth of the Italian Sailing Federation after the war.
Since the early 1900s, the history of the Italian Yacht Club has been rich in significant events: the victory in 1902 of the French Cup of 10 Arctic tons of HRH the Duke of Abruzzi, which marked the entry of the Club into the competitive world international; the gold medal won by 8 Meters S.I. Italy at the 11th Olympiad in Kiel in 1936; the experiments of the partner Guglielmo Marconi on board Elettra, moored in the Duca degli Abruzzi marina with the lights on in Sydney's town hall;
The figures of great personalities who have made the history of world yachting emerge from the past of the Club, such as Luigi Durand de La Penne, gold medal for military valor and Beppe Croce, beloved President of the Club for 28 years and the only non-Anglo-Saxon to hold for 17 years the helm of the International Sailing Federation. Then to get to the more recent Luca Devoti and Alessandra Sensini, who have enriched with their medals, Olympic and otherwise, the rich and prestigious bulletin board of the Club.
Over the years the impulse to yachting as a training course for young people has led to the realization of numerous projects such as the foundation of the STA-I in 1996, in collaboration with the Navy, to give the opportunity to many young people to embark as a crew in training on civil and military boats.
Again with the Navy, in 2007, the Italian Yacht Club established the Tender to Nave Italia Foundation, which promotes projects to recover, support and improve the quality of life of people made fragile by discomfort or disability, on board the brigantine of 61 meters Ship Italy.
In 2000 the Beppe Croce Sea School was born, whose activity is developed on a wide didactic program with courses, open to club members and non-members, to introduce and improve sailing, offshore sailing and preparation for obtaining a nautical license.
A long history that reaches the present day. In 2017 the baton of the Club President passed from the hands of Carlo Croce, for twenty years at the helm of the Club, to those of Nicolò Reggio. The new board aims at renewing habits and opening up towards Genoa, its institutions, its citizenship and in general towards all those initiatives, including those on an international scale, that allow the Club to update its profile. , without losing sight of the founding values deriving from the status of historical club, capable of successfully organizing events such as the Rolex Giraglia, the SIAD Bombola d'oro trophy, the MBA's Conference & Regatta, the Millevele, the Grand Prix d'Italie Mini 6.50 Alberti Cup.