Sailing Week 2026 will bring classic yachts and the 12 Metre class together in Imperia this September, marking the fortieth anniversary of one of the Mediterranean's longest-running vintage regattas, and a fresh chapter for a fleet with deep ties to America's Cup history.
The event runs from 28 August to 6 September, combining the long-established Vele d'Epoca gathering with the World Championship for the International 12 Metre class. These are boats whose lineage runs straight back to the America's Cup era, and Kiwi sailors with an eye on Cup history will recognise the type immediately.
Imperia sits on Italy's Ligurian coast, but the story belongs to the whole stretch of water running west into France, through Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Cannes and Saint-Tropez. It's one coastline, two flags. Nice itself only became French in 1860, under the deal struck between Cavour and Napoleon III, and the sailing cultures on both sides of the border developed side by side rather than separately.
Cannes founded its Société des Régates back in 1859. Sanremo's own regatta tradition dates to the early 1900s, with Coppa d'Italia races held between 1902 and 1912, and a 1903 event pointedly named the Coppa di Francia. Two clubs, two nations, one shared obsession.
That closeness sharpened again in the late twentieth century. Cannes revived its Régates Royales in 1978, Monaco Classic Week began in 1994, and in between, in 1986, Imperia launched its own Vele d'Epoca.
The man behind it was Pier Franco Gavagnin, then director of Portosole Sanremo. He was no stranger to big sailing projects: in 1953 he co-founded the Giraglia offshore race with Beppe Croce and René Levainville, and in 1958 he set up Sanremo's sailing academy for young racers. His first Vele d'Epoca fleet numbered around thirty boats.
The regatta now sits within the Comité International de la Méditerranée, the body linking the Mediterranean's major classic sailing events and awarding a single trophy across stages sailed in at least two countries. Boats that race at Cannes, Antibes and Monaco turn up at Imperia chasing the same points.
Founded in 1926, the CIM elected Italian Gigi Rolandi, head of the Associazione Italiana Vele d'Epoca, as its president in March 2026.
Imperia's bid for the 12 Metre Worlds rested on its sailing pedigree, favourable sea conditions, and the technical experience of Yacht Club Imperia, backed by consistent support from the city administration. Forty years on from that first thirty-boat gathering, the fleet keeps growing.
