Travel Journal
Another Dragon fresh from the Grand Prix d’Italia Dragon Cup in Sanremo, this time heading for Lake Balaton. Twelve hundred kilometres across the Alps to Balatonfüred, in Hungary, for the next leg of the international circuit.
The journey
The Grand Prix d’Italia Dragon Cup at the Yacht Club Sanremo is one of the main events on the international Dragon class circuit — nine-metre sailing boats designed in 1929, an Olympic class until 1972, and today among the most popular keelboat racing classes in the world. Those who race them competitively follow a calendar that spans the entire continent, and between one regatta and the next the boat must travel overland.
This Dragon had just completed a week of racing in the Gulf of Sanremo and the next leg was set at Lake Balaton, in Balatonfüred, a Hungarian town that is home to one of the oldest freshwater sailing traditions in Europe. The brief was simple: load the boat after the final day of racing and deliver it in time for the pre-regatta technical inspections in Hungary.
The route crosses the entire Po Valley and then the eastern Alps: A10 to Genova, A21 towards Piacenza, then the Brescia-Verona-Padova corridor and the motorway to Friuli. The Slovenian border is crossed at Trieste and from there it is flat all the way to Budapest, with a final detour towards Lake Balaton. Twelve hours of actual driving, spread over a day and a half with a mandatory rest stop.
What makes this transport distinctive is the destination: Lake Balaton is not a sea port with dedicated infrastructure, but a freshwater lake with access via slipways and mobile cranes. The arrival must be coordinated with the local sailing club to ensure the crane is available and a berth has already been assigned. We handled all the delivery logistics, including liaising with the regatta organisers to confirm the launching window.
Transporting racing boats between competitions is a service that demands absolute punctuality and knowledge of the loading procedures for boats with a lifting keel. Any old trailer will not do: you need a shaped cradle for the hull, securing straps positioned at the correct structural points, and a driver who understands what it means to deliver a racing boat without a single scratch on the hull.
A few photos from the journey
Need to transport a boat for a regatta?
Whether it is a lake in Hungary or a port in Scandinavia, we handle the complete transport of your boat between regattas.