Over 130 legendary boats gather at the Monaco Classic Week-La Belle Classe

MONACO, Sept. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over 130 boats will gather for the16th Monaco Classic Week-La Belle Classe organised by the Yacht Club de Monaco (13-16 September). The boats, including some forty classic sailing yachts, a dozen period motor yachts, around sixty vintage motorboats and a 20-strong fleet of Dinghy 12’ class, will make their way into Port Hercule today to moor in the YCM Marina.  

Launched in 1994, this biennial meeting showcases the boats of yesteryear still sailing. To kick things off, Tuiga, the flagship of the Yacht Club de Monaco, will join the other two 15M IR yachts, The Lady Anne and Mariska, for an inaugural regatta, while the Jury, chaired by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, will begin its inspection for the ‘La Belle Classe Restoration’ Prize.

The world’s most beautiful sailing boats are coming to the meeting, designed by the early America’s Cup architects like Nathanael G. Herreshoff to whom we owe several legends from the American classic scene like Atlantic(56.43m) and Elena of London(41.60m). Alongside will be the superb Charles Nicholson masterpiece, the three-mast schooner Creole(58.22m), showing off her elegant lines. On display there’ll also be the O’Remington(23.20m). Launched 1946 under the name Maria del Mar, the schooner was owned by Lord Remington, a wealthy American heir. Illustrious names like Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Marcello Mastroianni went on board and four Palmes d’or winners of the Cannes Film Festival stayed on her who would see the boat as a lucky charm for Italian cinema. At Maria Callas’s request, Lord Remington then headed for Athens where he met the famous Greek shipowner, Aristotle Onassis. During her time in Italy, the Diva rehearsed on board, an event engraved in the collective Italian memory reflected in the boat’s nickname ‘La Divina’. Eyes on the Naema(40.59m). This faithful replica of Alfred Mylne’s Panda left the Camper & Nicholson yard in 1938. Offered as a gift to King Bao Da of Anam (Vietnam) by the French government the boat found refuge in Toulon after the French withdrew from Indochina in 1954.

In the wake of the first motorboat meetings in 1904, some sixty motorboats will be brought together, including three dating from the early 20thcentury. A dozen vintage motor yachts will be cruising in the bay of Monaco, beauties like Thelasbuilt 1936 by De Vries Lentsch from the architect Norman Hart’s drawings. Alongside them will be an exceptional fleet of around thirty Rivas, mahogany wooden runabouts of the 1950s.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Prince Rainier III, who founded Yacht Club de Monaco in 1953, an exclusive exhibition entitled ‘The Prince and the Sea’ during Monaco Classic Week shines a light on some of the beautiful boats owned by a man who loved the sea and boats.  

For more information:
Press Office LaPresse - ufficio.stampa@lapresse.it

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