ClassicNikka - CYD 215

The classic lines, the wood, the attention to detail, the vintage philosophy: she will be called ClassicNikka, at the moment she is still just a (beautiful) project by Giovanni Ceccarelli, the CYD 215, but in about 12 months, when she takes to the water for launching, she will represent yet another demonstration of owner Roberto Lacorte's love for sailing and the sea.

The choice of the owner, known for his projects that look to speed and the future, is to marry classic taste and materials to indulge in unique, intimate sailing moments in his home sea, the islands of the Tuscan archipelago.

Thus, it will be a boat designed to experience the sea with simplicity and safety, seaworthy and easy to sail even with a small crew. Below deck a single cabin, a bathroom and what is needed to spend a night at anchor.

Today the CLASSICNIKKA is computer-aided design, the hull and appendages are CFD-tested, yet the wood construction systems are the same as then because those unique and "unrepeatable" hands of the shipwrights with their techniques that are learned only through years of work are still needed.

For Giovanni Ceccarelli this is a project that he feels is as alive as the material of which it is made. "Designing the boat," he says, "I could not forget that Roberto besides loving the sea is competitive and a lover of challenges, and so I conceived lines for ClassicNikka that close to metric boats: clean and elegant without influences of tonnage, which will be marine and fast even in racing. The boat will have to be beautiful in its modern classicism. It was a great satisfaction when I sent the first drawings and images to Roberto and he, calling me from the car after a few seconds of pause, said one word: 'bella' in his Tuscan accent. I think he was going fast. We met again at the Genoa Boat Show and the operational phase started. Now the design is finished and we are starting the construction."

The choice of shipyard, then, is another key aspect of this project.
We opted for Cantiere Checchi because it has a strong tradition of shipwrights and because over the past 40 years it has built some of the finest wooden boats currently on the market. "The goal," Lacorte concludes, "is to have a beautiful and elegant modern boat with a classic spirit that can participate in major vintage sail races. A boat with which to best appreciate the pleasure of sailing, totally different from FlyingNikka, which currently represents the most innovative approach to going to sea. They are two totally different projects, but united by the same common denominator: passion and love for sailing."