Vava II Visits Majuro
The superyacht Vava II in Majuro. Photo: Karen Earnshaw
The superyacht Vava II arrived in Majuro this week. She is owned by billionaires Ernesto and Kirsty Bertarelli, who are a fascinating couple partly because of his love of high-end competition sailing and her ongoing passion for writing songs and performing.
Ernesto was born in Italy and is now a Swiss entrepreneur active in the fields of business, finance, sport and philanthropy. In 2000 he founded the yachting syndicate Team Alinghi, which in 2003 won the Louis Vuitton Cup before beating Team New Zealand in Auckland to win the America’s Cup.
His team went on in 2007 to defend the Cup in Valencia, winning the battle against Team New Zealand 5-2. Ernesto was Team Alinghi’s only Swiss national serving as navigator in 2003 and subsequently as an after-guard runner and grinder in 2007.
Ernesto and Kirsty Bertallini.
His British wife is a songwriter and won the Miss UK title in 1988. The couple married in 2000 and have three children. The couple support many charities. Always interested and involved in music, Kirsty has continued to write songs since her marriage and recorded some of her songs for the UK-Swiss charity Smiling Children Foundation.
The below video is Kirsty performing her 2014 song Disappeared.
In 2011, a remix of Kirsty’s conservation song “Green” was chosen by the World Wildlife Fund to be their anthem to mark the Fund’s 50th year of conservation at their annual Panda Ball. She donated all proceeds from the single to the fund to support their ongoing conservation projects around the world.
Note: The two Google boats are currently in the Marshall Islands for a second time. Senses belongs to Google co-founder Larry Page, while Dragonfly (below) belongs to his partner Sergey Brin.
Dragonfly pulls into Uliga Dock in downtown Majuro. Photo: Cary Evarts
