Above: the finest hour? The 1998/1999 Around Alone Race and Soldini and Isabelle Autissier enjoy a brew onboard Fila after Soldini rescued the great French skipper (and environmentalist) from her capsized Imoca PRB, floating upside down in the Southern Ocean having resisted all efforts to right her. Autissier had tried every combination of keel cant and water ballast but all to no effect. Like a large multihull, the final-generation aircraft carrier-decked Imocas were unfortunately equally stable in two positions of equilibrium. Twenty-five years later and enjoying the launch of his latest project at Maranello… Soldini’s new yacht is anticipated to be a 100ft monohull with T-foils, rudder/elevator and a canting keel that may be removed for record attempts. We do know that, like Verdier’s ‘daring’ Ultim foiler Gitana, winner of the Arkéa Brest Challenge, it will no doubt work well out of the box and then only get better…
But a lot of the detail is still being kept
firmly under wraps, easy for a company that operates a Formula 1 team where technical secrecy is everything. Indeed, it appears that even once afloat categorising this boat won’t be straightforward; it might feature arms with buoyancy at the ends, adding stability during displacement sailing. Or just foils or perhaps both. Soldini characterises it as a ‘rather
unconventional monohull’, dubbing it a ‘monomaran’. He emphasises the involve- ment of a dedicated team of engineers and technicians from Scuderia Ferrari, driven to infuse it with cutting-edge performance. Soldini’s role is to harmonise scientific principles with practical seafaring wisdom. There is talk of a 20⇔ million budget,
but this alone will not be enough for a boat of this type. A new Ultim costs 15-20 million euros and they are now relatively proven technology. Soldini’s craft will require thousands of hours of testing to validate the innovations that the maritime equivalent of Ferrari aims to introduce. The deck tooling is now almost com-
pleted at Persico Marine, who of course declined to comment, and the hull mould will be on its way soon. A mix of clues point towards the probable construction site: a specially rented shipyard in Tuscany, situated along the Navicelli Canal. This famous canal, situated in the
province of Pisa and constructed between the 1500s and 1600s, serves as a navigable waterway leading to the port of Livorno. Along its banks stand the warehouses of numerous shipyards engaged in the motor - yacht sector. Once completed, the new boat will be able to reach the sea without the logistical complexities usually associ- ated with handling a boat of its size. Regarding speculation that this latest ‘Ferrari’ might support R&D activities
outside the Formula 1 budget restrictions, unsurprisingly Ferrari declined to offer an opinion… But Soldini is adamant about one crucial point: the boat will boast high energy efficiency and will not incorporate a ‘heat’ engine of any type. In which case this technological challenge could yield benefits extending from the boat to Ferrari’s sports cars at least. Seahorse: In more than 30 years of sailing you have always managed to find sponsors to support your ventures? Giovanni Soldini: It has consistently proved a challenging endeavour, a genuine struggle. There is no easy path. One must identify the best proposition for each potential partner, finding a rationale why they should invest funds in my recreational boating pursuits! Beyond merely attaining visibility through outcomes, it becomes imperative to commu- nicate substantive content and this now extends to significant subjects such as ecology, technology, and beyond. SH: So who were your very first backers? GS: I made my solo sailing debut in the 1991 La Baule-Dakar Race aboard the 50ft monohull Looping, a Berret-Racoupeau design that had previously triumphed in the BOC Challenge. On the hull I had boldly written ‘Sponsor Wanted’. Following this, the Italian sailing magazine Bolina featured me on its cover, catching the eye of Misco’s CEO, who subsequently got in touch. Misco, a company specialising in the
catalogue sale of office products, opted to back the venture… although in part due to a pre-existing connection – when I encoun- tered their amiable CEO a few years before in Cuba when I was a charter skipper. On my return from Dakar I was living
in Milan looking for sponsors. Every company I approached turned me away, except one – Viaggidea, a tour operator I discovered through the Yellow Pages!
Following a chat with the CEO’s secre-
tary, I successfully secured a 10-minute interview with the CEO, Mr Boscoscuro. He was both encouraging and open- minded. The meeting proved exceptionally positive, and Viaggidea became my inau- gural longterm sponsor. Teaming up Misco and Viaggidea, I
participated in the 1992 Ostar, once again aboard Looping. Once involved, Viag- gidea immediately gathered feedback from customers through questionnaires… and many mentioned our sponsorship, express- ing congratulations and delivering tangible returns. A pivotal part of my commercial strategy during those early years was a determination to tell a compelling human story – for my next project it was by constructing the boat within a recovery community for individuals dealing with problems of drug addiction… helped by my relative youth! These elements collec- tively contributed to a captivating and, it turned out, very powerful narrative. SH: How did the idea of building a boat with a recovery community come about? GS: During the 1992 Quebec-St Malo Race Looping lost its keel in the North Atlantic and sank. The boat did not belong to me; it was on loan from a private owner. Follow- ing the shipwreck he claimed the insurance and decided to abandon the project. Conse- quently, in the autumn of 1992 at the age of 26 I found myself without a boat, without an owner and without funds. In response, I established a sports association and man- aged to enlist around 50 individuals who lent me money to construct a brand new boat… a sort of early crowdfunding! The most significant contributor was Mr
Casti, publisher of Bolina magazine, who provided me with around 8,000€ – then in Italian lira. Other lenders were boat owners and acquaintances I had met along the way.
SEAHORSE 55
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