BLIND SAILORS AT THE BIGGEST RACE IN THE WORLD
Barcolana is the biggest sailing race in the world. More than 2000 boats of all sizes sail together in the Gulf of Trieste, from little 20’ boats crewed by a couple to supermaxis with dozens of professional sailors.
As part of our project, we raced in this regatta with a mixed crew of seven blind sailors and five sailing instructors. The day was very windy, with peaks of almost 30 knots, which made the race fast but not easy.
Our crew sailed on Briganti, a 45’ Elan Impression. Our helmsman was Giuseppe Cocevari, an excellent blind sailor. This was his third Barcolana as helmsman, while for all the other blind participants this was the first time in a sailing race, let alone in such a crowded one! We did not want to get crowded at the start line so started a few minutes later than most, but Giuspeppe manged to steer the boat perfectly and we finished the race on the 374th place on over 2000 boats. An excellent result, but more importantly, we all had lots of fun!