In the middle of February, just before any of us had realised how serious the Corona virus outbreak was becoming, Roger and I were invited to sail aboard Canova by its owner, Dario Segre. Canova is a 43 metre very modern and very fast sailing yacht built by Baltic Yachts and delivered at the end of 2019. It competed in the 2020 World Superyacht Awards and Roger and I were invited onboard to judge her, and Roger wanted to write an article for Boat International about her.

Canova had several quite unique features. Both the hull and superstructure are carbon composite. Her length overall is 12 metres shorter than Adèle, but her waterline length is actually longer than Adèle’s, her width is nearly the same as Adèle’s, but her displacement is only half of Adèle’s. I am, as most of you know, an admirer of classic yachts, but Canova blew me away!

She is very fast, very beautiful in a modern way and very comfortable.