The FlyingNikka project, Roberto Lacorte’s new, long-awaited boat is finally becoming a reality. It is a unique and unprecedented step into third-millennium sailing, not travelling on the water in a traditional way but flying. Literally.
Nineteen meters long and equipped with state-of-the-art foils that will enable full-foil sailing, FlyingNikka is a design project from the team co-ordinated by Irish designer Mark Mills of Studio Mills Design (the same as Mini Maxi SuperNikka). Built in Valencia at the King Marine boatyard, it will be the first Mini Maxi in the world with foils, evolved to suit the long AC 75 sailings that characterised the most recent edition of the America’s Cup, in pursuit of victory (and records), in the main coastal and offshore regattas, and obviously in the colours of the Pisa Repubblica Marinara Yacht Club.
“”It will be a boat with a difference, the first of a new generation that is destined to sail far. We are the first, with all the pros and cons that this brings, but my professional and sporting life has always been marked by innovation and a desire to explore, so this for me was a foregone choice of direction”, explains Roberto Lacorte. “We have been working on this project for a long time, with Mark Mills and the sailors with whom I have shared many victories on SuperNikka and the Persico 69F circuit. Now we know precisely which route to take and we are ready. I can count on an exceptional team to provide a fundamental contribution to the construction of FlyingNikka, the most important thing, when you set out on an enterprise of this nature, out of your comfort zone, that might even seem a bit crazy”.
Alessio Razeto, Team Manager and director of the Sail Project, Lorenzo Bressani, Enrico Zennaro, Andrea Fornaro and Lorenzo de Felice are the five experts and championship sailors who, with Lacorte himself, boat commander Fabrizio Turini and the project team put together by Mark Mills and Project Manager Micky Costa, will work closely together on the development of this innovative FlyingNikka project until launch day, expected for the first half of 2022.
A boat that is prepared to astonish – that will be able to compete with a certificate as important as the ORC, thanks to hand-in-glove collaboration with the Offshore Racing Congress, in defining a VPP for full foil boats – initial technical details will be revealed over the next few months…
