Monaco is gearing up for the 36th Primo Cup – Trophée Credit Suisse set to kick off on Thursday 6th February. Organised by the Yacht Club of Monaco, the competition is a meeting par excellence for one-designs.
The regatta has been held every February since 1985, the month it was launched at the instigation of YCM President HSH Prince Albert II.
Each year, top European one-design sailors gather in Monaco to compete in this first event on the Mediterranean circuit. The event is unusual in that top European teams are competing on the same race area as enthusiastic amateurs.
The profile of classes and competitors this year once again points to a high-level regatta that will live up to expectations, with some 450 sailors expected. Primo Cup regulars will be
there – the Smeralda 888s, Melges 20s and a big fleet of J/70s with several Nordic teams who have based themselves in the Principality over the winter for the Monaco Sportsboat Winter
Series of monthly regattas from October to March.
It’s a larger fleet due to the fact that Monaco is hosting the World Championship for this class from 18th to 23th October 2021, a deadline attracting international teams like the Americans on Team Newport Harbor and the British on Redshift. The latter will have Hannah Diamond onboard who recently cut her teeth on the Volvo Ocean Race after years in dinghy classes, notably the Nacra 17 in which she won the European Vice-Champion title in 2013.
Alongside will be the Longtze Premier, a 7m keelboat developed by the team on Le Défi at the America’s Cup in 2007 and which has spread rapidly in Europe.
Last but not least is a newcomer to the Primo Cup – Trophée Credit Suisse, the L30, recently selected as the class for the first offshore World Championship in Malta to be held this October.
This is a truly international new class, judging by the list of nations already signed up including Japan, Ukraine, South Korea, Belgium and France. The 30-foot keelboat was developed by Rodion Luka, the Ukrainian Olympic medallist and contestant in the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race, in collaboration with RC44 designer, Andrej Justin. The new Offshore event should be at the 2024 Paris Olympics as mixed doubles, although this has yet to be confirmed. Unlike the double-hander racing at the Games, the Primo Cup – Trophée Credit Suisse will be a team event for this class.
The arrival of a fleet of Onefly dinghies, a winged and foiled one-design, completes an already well orchestrated spectacle. These flying dinghies have the features required to allow them to be sailed in all weather conditions. The YCM is expecting around a dozen on the water for Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th February for exhibition phases and test runs.
Green Globe, recognised as the international standard for sustainable tourism, has given two Monte-Carlo landmarks the Green Globe stamp of approval.
Café de Paris and Le Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo have both been recognised by the prestigious institution, giving the Café de Paris the honour of being the first restaurant in the world to be certified. Le Thermes has been rewarded with the Gold certification, another first, for five continuous years of commitment, for a spa in this category.
Café de Paris was judged on more than 300 indicators to assess the establishment’s commitment and practices toward sustainability. The Place du Casino Brewery was particularly noted for its proactive policies regarding waste and plastic minimisation, work with local charities, and public awareness programmes through their customer base.
“This Green Globe certification is the embodiment of the work of all the teams at the Café de Paris Monte-Carlo, which makes our establishment the first restaurant to be Green Globe certified,” said General Manager Stefano Brancato.
Café de Paris General Manager Stefano Brancato
Le Thermes, the Principality’s legendary spa, was first granted Green Globe status in 2016. Now, five years later, they are continuing not only to maintain their high standards, but to raise them. Five years ago, they had an impressive 82% compliance rate based on their use of renewable energy sources for electricity, treatments respectful of the environment and food made from local products using healthy cooking practices.
Today, they have an 86% compliance rate, due to the addition of practices that include minimising the use of plastics, use of eco-friendly suppliers, and the creation of a roof garden to supply their own produce.
“The strong and continuous commitment to sustainable development drives our teams on a daily basis,” explained Christine Zoliec, General Director of the Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo. “They are constantly implementing environmentally friendly and sustainable actions in their various activities – care, fitness, catering, health – a commitment rewarded today by the Green Globe Gold certification, of which we are very proud.”
Interview: Georges Gambarini, Smart City Program Manager
Georges Gambarini talks to Monaco Life about what it means to be a Smart City, why we need 5G, and the exciting new technology that he and his team are set to roll out in 2020.
Monaco Life: Why were you brought in to take control of Monaco’s Smart City programme in October 2018?
Georges Gambarini: Monaco has been a Smart City for a while now, but we needed to enter ‘Phase Two’ and go deeper and faster to create new digital services. Smart City Monaco is one of the Extended Monaco projects and my main purpose is to create a new vision of what a Smart City represents. How do you create a Smart City?
There are two main axes of my job. Firstly, I create new multi-lingual digital services for residents, workers and visitors in Monaco. Secondly, I create new digital tools for government staff to use on a daily basis. Within that, there are three main categories… Mobility: It is our job to help people access information on things like traffic jams and public transport timetables as easily as possible. We want fewer people taking their cars to go to work or the shop, but we also know that people will choose cars if they think they don’t have the right information on public transport. So, we are working on projects like Citymapper, which unifies all of our transport services in Monaco with one digital app. This is a world-wide multi-lingual application with a geographical scope from the Italian border to the Nice Airport, and allows users to plan their travel based on real-time access to all the various timetables. Life quality: Another part of my job is to create new services in order to provide a better life quality to residents, visitors and workers. MonaMove is one such project and the aim is to provide a new digital sports station with free coaching for users. So far, we have had many people download the app, but we also have users who are not using the app, just the hardware. We know this because there are sensors on the equipment, and we can see the times, days and equipment that are most popular with users. So, it is getting great traction already, and we are very proud of this project. MonaMove is an example of how we aim to be inclusive, to make sure that digital does not create borders with some people. You can exercise using your mobile app if you want to, or you can exercise without using the app. But maybe over time, you will become familiar with it and improve your digital culture. Digital is for everybody, not only for young people, and while we don’t want to force it on people, we do encourage it, because it is the way of the world. MonaMove Urban planning: The job of my team and the government is to manage the city, and to do this we need to know the city. This year, with new technology, we will be monitoring a variety of things in the city streets: the average speed of cars, the air quality, the noise levels. We will even be able to monitor all of the parking spaces, and the next step will be an app that lets you see which spaces are free and available to book.
By doing this we are serving one of our major objectives, which is to foster our energy transition. Better management of our city means less consumption of energy, a decrease in traffic jams and therefore fewer emissions. The main essence of our Smart City is to be sustainable. Sensors such as this are being deployed throughout Monaco
We have street lights, for example, which will increase in brightness when someone is walking underneath them and decrease when nobody is in the street, thereby reducing energy consumption. We will deploy some tech to monitor major works in the city, so we will have real-time tracking of noise, construction times, whether the work area is contained within the designated zone… If we find works that are not complying with the rules, authorities will be able to issue immediate fines. Of course, the law needs to evolve in order to provide digital’s full potential. What are some of the new apps you are launching this year?
The Urban Report is an exciting new app that allows people to easily report things to authorities that they see throughout the city, for example road works. The right people will get the information and will try to find a solution as quickly as possible. Each citizen is part of the city and each citizen can help us manage the city effectively. Only digital can create this proximity between people and government action. As great as digital is, it does raise concerns about privacy. So, how do you, as someone who is leading Smart City Monaco, reassure people of these fears?
Monaco is a very old country and very respectful of privacy because it is part of our business model. Providing security is also part of our business model. So, we try to find a technological approach that combines these two. In Monaco, we already have around 500 cameras manned by the police, and the rules of privacy are respected; we also have a very good police force in Monaco, so security is of a high standard. What will the average person walking through Monaco notice over the next few months in terms of tech?
They may notice detectors because we are deploying around 15 digital detectors throughout Monaco in the first quarter. We will also deploy a series of smart traffic lights for testing. The aim is for buses to travel faster through the city on their routes because we think that if we improve the commercial speed of our buses, we will be able to attract more people to use the service, which means less cars. These ‘Smart’ traffic lights will be able to turn green when they detect an approaching bus, and we can apply this for other vehicles like police and ambulances. It will also help decrease the number of traffic jams in Monaco. We will be testing these in the this year. Digital screen in Monaco
People will also notice more digital screens throughout the Principality. We have already deployed 42 digital screens in three languages, featuring a lot of information about Monaco – transport solutions, information for tourists, waste management, even games. The screens have been used more than 50 times a day on average in less than six months so we are very happy with the initiative. Each screen location also provides free WiFi.
Another project that I am starting to work on involves low-tech. We still have a lot of old phone cables in Monaco, so the aim is to either remove them or reuse them by creating new services to utilise them in a different way.
We will also be developing a new ticketing app. It is the year 2020 after all, it would be nice to take the bus and pay with your phone. Hopefully, this will be ready in September for rentrée. There are now 27 ‘Smart Cities’ across the globe, led by London, Singapore and Barcelona. Why is Monaco only now starting to introduce a lot of this technology?
We are a very small city and we need to find the right economic model to develop these kinds of apps, which is why we are a little late on certain things. But that’s my job, and the willingness of the government, to be a state-of-the-art city. Autonomous Shuttle Bus How important is 5G to Monaco?
5G will provide its full potential in 2020/2021. It is a very clever technology that enables digital services to perform at their optimum. 5G allows us to develop, for example, autonomous vehicles which require a precise and continuous internet connection in order to function properly.
Also, we are set to deploy a lot of tech throughout the city and each point will be a consumption point, so we need to increase our supply.
It wouldn’t be possible for the economy to go through what it is going through today without this kind of network. But we also understand that there is a lot of fear and misconception about 5G. The government, however, is monitoring, on a real time basis, electromagnetic field measurements throughout Monaco, making sure levels stay within regulation.
Last year we created a website called CartoRadio, where the public can find the main measures. This is important, because we know we need to be transparent. If people have concerns, we are more than happy to explain. We will continue to host education campaigns throughout the year on 5G and our new technologies and will also be communicating regularly with Monaco Life to make sure everyone is on board with the Smart City programme.
Despite a shortage of new properties on the market last year, €2.8 billion worth of real-estate transactions took place in Monaco in 2019, with three-bedroom resale apartments doubling in value, according to statistics body IMSEE.
Latest real estate figures from the Institut Monégasque de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (IMSEE) show that 2019 saw a drop in the number of real estate transactions in the Principality, due mainly to the fact that less new properties were available for sale. Only nine new apartments that had been planned were delivered, leaving the rest to “off-plan” sales, which limited the decline.
Prices per square metre dropped slightly as well, from €48,800 to €48,150, but IMSEE says this is a natural reaction to the steep increase seen in 2018, which saw the most transactions since 2006, due in no small part to the delivery of the four blocks of the Stella building.
Studios were the most popular transactions last year with 14 sold, encompassing 42.4% of total real estate sales, despite the fact they were on the market for 20% more than in 2018. None were sold the previous year, showing a market trend toward this type of apartment. One-bedroom apartments took the biggest hit, with only eight sold in 2019 compared to 57 the previous year, though IMSEE again points to lack of availability.
The median sale price increased by almost 9% to €3.4 million and the average price nearly doubled due to the sales of exceptional properties. Of the 33 new-property sales last year, the lion’s share was less than €5 million, consistent with the sale of smaller studio apartments. But those that went for more than €10 million increased to nine in 2019, leaving only two sold in the medium range of €5 to €10 million.
As for resales, the biggest leap was seen in the purchase of three-bedroom apartments, up by 24.4%. The biggest drop was in two-bedrooms, which fell by just over 28%. This is rather remarkable given that the price of a three-bedroom apartment rose by over 50% on the previous year, whereas the price of a two-bedroom fell by around a quarter. Resales accounted for 429 total sales in 2019.
The average price for resales went up by almost 12%, and the median by 8.6%, again with most apartments – 288 – being sold in the under €5 million range, followed by the €5 to €10 million purchases, with the over €10 millions still accounting for 60 sales.
The cumulative amount of transactions in total, both sales and resale, increased 4.4% to a mammoth €2.8 billion. All in all, it was a very positive year for the Monegasque property market, despite little in the way of new product, which is due to be rectified in 2020.
After a promising start, AS Monaco has fallen to Nîmes 1-3 away on Saturday.
The Red and Whites were looking good at the beginning of the match against 19th ranked Nîmes Olympique on Saturday night. A Wissam Ben Yedder goal at the quarter hour mark opened the scoring and put them ahead. It was a spectacular play, tucking the ball between the posts despite an awkward angle, and gave Ben Yedder his 15th goal of the season, whilst giving newbie Fofana the assist.
But then, around the half hour mark, everything went haywire. Florian Miguel evened up the score as Bakayoko fouled Romain Philippoteaux whilst trying to recover the ball after a bit of poor ball control. He got the yellow card for his trouble, but after the play was reviewed on video, the decision was changed, and the referee sent him off. When Gelson Martins stepped in to argue the call, he too was red carded and sent his marching orders and additionally, Fofana was booked as well.
With seriously bad luck on their tails, the Red and Whites were then two men down with 15 minutes still on the clock until halftime, punished for a foul that appeared to many to only warrant a warning. Though struggling, Monaco managed to keep it together and not concede any goals by the half.
After the break, there was some excellent ball-handling on both sides, and at the 62nd minute, all that good play was converted into a goal by Nîmes’s Philippoteaux. Moreno’s men struck back 10 minutes later when Ben Yedder almost made his second goal of the night, but was thwarted by Bernardoni, ostensibly as payback for his earlier goal.
Down by one, the match seemed far from over until the 79th, when Martinez snuck one in from the corner. Sadly, Monaco wasn’t able to even things up again, and in the end the score held firm at 1-3.
Monaco Rugby Sevens Supersevens inaugural team made it all the way to the quarter finals before falling to Stade Français 19-26 on Saturday at the Paris-La Défense Arena.
The Monaco Rugby Sevens team, despite being founded just last year, fought its way to the quarter finals of the new French Supersevens, officially called In Extensio Supersevens until 2023, which was organised for the first time this year by the National League of Rugby.
The Monegasque team is made up primarily of South African players who have been part of the world circuit, and therefore, despite not having played together more than a handful of times, were the odds-on favourites. Perhaps it was lack of experience working together as a team, or simply an over-abundance of confidence that led them to cede the victory to the Parisian team, landing them in 7th place overall.
The Supersevens is comprised of 14 teams from France, one from Monaco and one invitee. Each team is made up of 20 players. Fifteen of the players are “regulars”, of which three must be professionals, then four “wildcards” from the France sevens, and one who is currently without a club or who plays internationally and specialises in rugby sevens’ tournaments.
This year’s winners were Racing 92, who beat out Section Paloise for the top spot 28-12.
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