Panerai Sets Sail in Newport Classic Regatta: Winners Announced
Photo credit: Cory Silken
Luxury Swiss watch brand, Officine Panerai, celebrated the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge for the 11th consecutive year as the title sponsor over the holiday weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. The 2016 Newport Classic Yachts Regatta wrapped up on Sunday after an action-packed weekend, particularly interesting this year due to the slow arrival of Hurricane Hermine. After a sunny and dry day on Saturday with little to no winds, veteran sailors were pleased when Sunday’s gusting winds of 22 mph picked up, lending the perfect weather for an exciting day of racing.
Notable attendees included long-time classic sailing enthusiast John Taft, Panerai NA President Giovanni Carestia and PCYC Chair Susan Wayne.
The 2016 winners of first place in their classes of the Newport Classic Yacht Regatta Awards and Circuit Awards were:
Newport Classic Yacht Regatta Panerai Winners Grand Prix Day Racer – Race Horse – Donald Tofias
Grand Prix Yacht – Wild Horses – Donald Tofias
Vintage Day Racer – Ruweida – Joe Huber
Vintage Corinthian Classic – Amorita- Jed Pearsall
Vintage Grand Classic – Gleam – Kip Curren
Panerai Timepiece Winner Vintage Corinthian Classic – Amorita- Jed Pearsall
Panerai Circuit Winners Grand Prix Class – WILD HORSES
Grand Prix Day Racer – RACE HORSE
Vintage Day Racer – Tilly XV
Vintage Corinthian Classic – DORADE
Vintage Grand Classic – BLACK WATCH
Panerai gifted a special timepiece (Luminor 1950 3 Days GMT Power Reserve –47 mm [PAM 00347]) to Jed Pearsall and Bill Doyle of the AMORITA for the best overall performance, which ranked the lowest combined scores of its class and lowest normalized score across all five clases.
Additional highlights of the weekend included this year’s Sailing Heals event, where Panerai and the local non-profit sailing organization partnered to sponsor patient and caregiver sails for the community residents in need. A majority of these recipients include cancer patients and their caregivers. To celebrate the partnership, Panerai and Healing Sails dedicated one day of classic sailing on four separate boating vessels: THE BLUE PETER, WILD HORSES, GALAVANT and TOBIAS along with a beautiful Italian-inspired lunch in the Newport Shipyard with 20 local VIP guests.
