SAILING AWAY: Celebrating its sailing heritage, Loro Piana will be the official title sponsor of the 71st edition of the Giraglia Regatta, organized by the Yacht Club Italiano with the support of the Société Nautique de Saint-Tropez, and to be held June 7 to 15.
“There has always been a very strong connection between Loro Piana and sailing. We share many common values: tradition, passion – or should I say obsession – for excellence, for perfection, for perseverance… even more so through the lens of the Giraglia Regatta,” said Damien Bertrand, chief executive officer of Loro Piana. “Sailing means contact with nature, but also research: it is an extraordinary open-air laboratory that has always been exploited by Loro Piana to experiment with the best performing and most innovative solutions.”
The sponsorship reflects the Loro Piana family’s passion for sailing and deputy chairman Pier Luigi Loro Piana this year will participate in the Giraglia Regatta aboard his boat My Song with the crew.
“For me, competition in sailing is about the boat: how do you make it go faster, better, smoother? How do you work with the wind and the sea? You can only learn this by competing, by comparing yourself with others and learning,” he observed. “That being said, I am not a very competitive person, I don’t really enjoy competing for the sake of competing. The point is not winning, the point is sailing, enjoying the journey and working together with the crew. If you win, it is only a bonus.”
A pragmatic businessman with an encyclopaedic knowledge of and passion for fabrics whose family founded luxury brand Loro Piana in 1924, he was named deputy chairman of the company after LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton bought it in 2013.
The Loro Piana Giraglia 2024 will start with four days of coastal races along the shores of Saint-Tropez, to be held from June 9 to June 11. The main event will be held on June 12 with the offshore sailing race from Saint-Tropez to Genoa via the Giraglia island in Northern Corsica, a voyage of 241 nautical miles.
First held in 1953, this sailing race sees over 200 boats, including 30-meter yachts and Maxis, take part in each edition.
As reported, in May the Loro Piana brand was the official sponsor of the IMA Maxi European Championship, organized by the International Maxi Association together with one of the country’s oldest yacht clubs, Naples’ Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia. The sailing event ran from May 12 to 21 and comprised a 150-mile-long regatta and four days of inshore regattas. Pier Luigi Loro Piana competed in the race with My Song.
