Porto Cervo, 19th June 2023. It was 18th June 1983 when Azzurra took part in her first race in the Challenger Series of the 25th America’s Cup in Newport, Rhode Island. The opponent that day was France III and victory went to Azzurra, the first in a long series of wins that would take the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s 12 Metre yacht all the way to the semi-finals of the qualification stage.

Forty years later, the protagonists of that adventure which won over the hearts of Italians, saw Azzurra adopted as the sailing equivalent of the national football team, and paved the way for subsequent challenges for the America’s Cup, gathered in Porto Cervo for a celebratory dinner at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.