Luxury brands lend their support to yacht races

We're sitting on a catamaran, bobbing on the Caribbean waters off Virgin Gorda island with several other motor launches, when the foghorn sounds. With whoops and shouts, the crews of some the best superyachts of the world launch into a race around the British Virgin Islands.

We watch as the majestic boats crisscross in front of us, with crew members running from port to starboard as they try to manoeuvre to faster speeds and better waters. Even from a distance, it looks exhilarating - but the more adventurous among us would be able to experience first hand the action on deck over the next few days.

By evening, it's a jocular bunch that sits down to a casual dinner at Yacht Club Costa Smeralda at Virgin Gorda, the biggest of the British Virgin Islands, to regale each other with the day's hits and misses at sea. The casualness of the events surrounding the regatta belie the extent of the luxury factor that is docked outside the club.

Every March, the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta and Rendezvous brings some of the world's most spectacular boats to the Caribbean. Among those at this year's races are the 57.5m Twizzle - valued at US$70.5 million - the 34m Nilaya and the 37m Moonbird.

Pier Luigi Loro Piana, deputy chairman of the luxury lifestyle brand Loro Piana, and the company's new CEO, Matthieu Brisset, were on board the chartered 40m Rainbow, which finished second in its division at this year's regatta.

Beyond the world of Formula One and Nascar racing, yachting has become a popular sport for luxury lifestyle brands as they try to make their values more relevant to target clientele, and promote new lines of relevant products.

For Loro Piana, which also sponsors the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta in Porto Cervo in Sardinia each June, such a connection goes beyond the deputy chairman's love for the ocean. The brand has developed a proprietary treatment called Storm System that makes cashmere waterproof and windproof - perfect for sailing conditions.

Loro Piana isn't the only lifestyle brand that has put its name on a regatta: for 10 years until 2013, the Louis Vuitton Cup was a race used to select the teams that would eventually sail in the America's Cup.

Luxury watch brands known for seafaring or diving timepieces, such as Rolex and Officine Panerai, have also been strong supporters of the sport. Rolex sponsors five regattas, including the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Rolex China Sea Race that starts off in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Italian watchmaker Officine Panerai is the leading classic yacht regatta organiser with 11 events around the world this year, including the Panerai British Classic Week held in July and the Newport Museum of Yachting Classic Yacht Regatta that took place last month.

Officine Panerai's history as a watchmaker for the Italian navy makes the connection with the ocean obvious, but the brand's passion for yachting also reflects its CEO Angelo Bonati's love for sailing. The brand has also been actively participating in many of its regattas with a restored classic yacht, Eilean. Bonati discovered the boat wrecked among the mangroves in Antigua, where the year's classic yacht calendar kicks off every spring. He spent three years painstakingly restoring the boat before reintroducing it to the sailing world in 2010.