This morning we attended the launch of the monohull ‘Alla Grande – Pirelli’, the new Class40 of Ambrogio Beccaria, 30yo Milanese sailor and first Italian to ever win the Mini-Transat. The boat, designed by Gianluca Guelfi in collaboration with Fabio D’Angeli, thanks to the support of Pirelli as main and lead sponsor, will soon sail to Sicily, ready for the next edition of the Palermo-Montecarlo regatta. Later this year it will cross the Atlantic taking part at The Route du Rhum.
The launching ceremony took place at Calata Gadda, in the heart of Genova’s Old Port, with all the Alla Grande team. A light breeze welcomed the boat, held at its christening by a very important godmother in the Milanese sailor’s career: the bottle was smashed with a sure shot by Ambrogio’s mother Roberta Oriani. In September, there will be an official public event with all the project partners and international press.
The construction of the Class40 ”Alla Grande – Pirelli” lasted six months at the newborn SanGiorgio Marine shipyard of Edoardo Bianchi, Persico Marine’s formerly project manager during the development of the foiling Luna Rossa boats and Olympic skipper himself.
The work involved a team of 10 people, including the boat’s two designers, Gianluca Guelfi and Fabio D’Angeli, Alberto Monaco — shipyard manager — Alberto Riva — oceanic navigator, in charge of on-board electronics — Tommaso Stella, responsible for the ropes in collaboration with Gottifredi and Maffioli — Bernardo Zin — boat captain, who oversaw all the construction and organization of the working flow — and Albane Seassau — who took care of the safety equipment and facilities.
Alla Grande is a spaceship!
Ambrogio Beccaria
The Milanese sailor said: “I am very satisfied. With Guelfi we chose a boat, amongst the 40s we studied, that was the easiest to operate with difficult conditions. Not the one with the lowest resistance, but the one offering the best attitude. We designed the sails before drawing the boat, which allowed us to know more precisely what the character Alla Grande would have had. We constantly mixed the scientific method of Guelfi with my more empirical input; I wanted a boat able to fly without foil, a boat with its bow constantly out of the water. And I really hope I have succeeded!”
We used materials with a very low environmental impact sourced by Northern Light Composite: we have constructed the bow and stern hatch as well as the instrument panel with flax fiber and a thermosetting, recyclable resin. Now we will test everything in open sea.
The most important innovation of ‘Alla Grande – Pirelli’ certainly is that it is a performing and safe boat at the same time, for the ocean and destined to go solo around the world. It has been designed with additional safety requirements additional compared to other same class boats. “The line of the deck,” — as appointed by Gianluca Guelfi — “is very particular due to the presence of a double edge that has the purpose of both stiffening the boat longitudinally and optimizing the position of the gravity center with respect to the tonnage limit imposed by Class40.”
It is no coincidence that ‘Alla Grande – Pirelli’, the first Class40 entirely designed and built by an Italian team debuts in the Mediterranean Sea and in the most famous offshore regatta of the season. Since 2005, the Palermo-Montecarlo, organized by Circolo della Vela Sicilia with the support of Yacht Club de Monaco, Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and partner Tasca d’Almerita, has been the main sailing event of the summer.
The Palermo-Montecarlo will start on Friday, August 19, from Mondello, to conclude at the Monaco harbor after 500 nautical miles, passing through the cristalline waters in of Porto Cervo.
