ITALIA YACHTS 12.98

ITALIA YACHTS HAS SUCCEDED WITH ITS SMALLER DESIGNS, BUT IS THERE ROOM FOR YET ANOTHER PREMIUM BRAND IN THE 40-45FT CRUISER-RACER SECTOR?

- RUPERT HOLMES

Few new boatbuilders notch up a succession of race wins, including three ORC World Championship victories, as quickly as Italia Yachts has managed. What makes this even more impressive is that these are genuine dual-purpose yachts with fully fitted interiors and enough comfort to spend a few weeks on board in style.

The vision for the 43ft Italia 12.98 was very clear from the outset: a single design with two distinctly different versions, the Fuoriserie race edition and Bellissima performance cruiser. Our test boat is the latter, which is nearly 400kg heavier than the race version, but has more efficient use of space and greater comfort below decks. At the same time, it still has the same Maurizio Cossutti designed narrow hull with a single rudder and minimal wetted surface area intended to give excellent performance, particularly close-hauled and in light airs.

The Italia’s hull shape has an all-round performance profile, without being optimised for power reaching in the manner of many twin rudder designs. So how would it respond to being pushed hard with a big kite and the apparent wind well forward?

Towards the end of my first sail the breeze notched up to 10 knots with the Quantum A2 spinnaker pulling us along at 8.5-9.5 knots, with the true wind 20° aft of the beam, but the apparent a long way forward and the huge 178m2 sail sheeted as tight as possible.

POWERED UP