Offshore success wins 2018 Atlantic Cup

Published on June 10th, 2018

Portland, ME (June 10, 2018) – French/Italian team #145 Eärendil, skippered by Catherine Pourre and Pietro Luciani, captured the 2018 Atlantic Cup as they dominated the two offshore legs and held on to a narrow advantage as #128 Toothface II closed the gap with exceptional racing in the inshore series. The Portland-based #127 Amhas, skippered by Micah Davis and Rob Windsor, placed third after a consistent performance throughout the two-week event.

Pourre, the first female skipper to win the Atlantic Cup, and co-skipper Pietro Luciani of Venice, Italy, used the impressive lead they built by besting the field during the first offshore leg (Charleston, S.C. to Jersey City, N.J.) and the second leg (Jersey City, N.J. to Portland, Maine).

During the inshore series, Boston-based Toothface II put the pressure on Eärendil by winning two out of the five races and placing second twice. Eärendil hung on by just one point, beating Toothface II 77-76 on total points.

“We could have been better on the inshore series,” admitted Pourre, “but Toothface was really great on the inshore series, and also Dragon and Amhas and the others, so we have been facing people we love, we like them because we got to know them in the previous edition and it has been great sailing. All the two weeks, so it’s really nice. I am happy to be the winner of course.”

Luciani added, “We did what we had to do in the offshore, but we were facing a super strong boat, actually a lot of strong boats, but especially Toothface, and we were able to keep our lead, just because of our crew. So thank you to them. I want to thank everyone, this is competitive and friendly and that’s the best combination.”

Toothface II, skippered by Mike Dreese and Tristan Mouligné, made a late charge during the weekend’s inshore series to secure second place and just nearly missed out on an extraordinary comeback victory.

“We are feeling really good. We had a great, great inshore crew, and really picked up the pace,” noted Dreese. “The challenge of the race, where every boat was challenged, the inshore was challenging from every angle. Eärendil gets huge props for a comeback when they were OCS, we are so proud to be among the podium winners. The organization of this and the level of competition, having the boats come from so far away to compete, this without a doubt, is the greatest race I’ve ever participated in. Props to everyone involved and all the competitors.”

Mouligne added, “It was a great event, we had a goal of being on the podium and of winning the inshore regatta, we accomplished those two and couldn’t be happier. It was a great team that was on the podium with Amhas and Eärendil and just super proud and excited.”

The Atlantic Cup, the longest offshore sailing race in the Western Atlantic and the most environmentally sustainable sailing race in the U.S., featured an international field of eleven teams representing nine different countries: the USA, Angola, Brazil, France, U.K., Sweden, Italy, South Africa and Canada.