Here are in detail, the resumes and reasons for the nomination of the 52 “nominees” who remained in the race after the first skim (fifty plus two “nominated and chosen by you” with dedicated poll). For convenience we have again divided them into categories: please note that these subdivisions are not binding, and the candidates (whom you will have to vote for by web poll) will run “all against all.” Of these (voting will remain open until March 15) 25 will advance to the next stage.

THE LIST OF THE “MAGNIFICENT 52”

THE SPECIALISTS OF MONOTYPES
CARLO ALBERINI
The J70 is a fledgling monotype class, but it is already a battleground for specialists: the strongest among the Italian team is Carlo Alberini, 53, a helmsman-owner who comes from the Melges 20 world. Aboard Calvi Network, he won the 2014 European (and Italian) title and the Italia Cup.

PAUL BERTUZZI
Paolo Bertuzzi, owner of Turboden, is the reigning European Ufo22 Champion: a one-design class that, especially on the lakes, is going places. It is not talked about much, but regulars in the class include Diego Negri and even Russell Coutts. Hats off, then, to Paolo Bertuzzi and his crew.

TOMMASO CHIEFFI
Tommaso Chieffi is one of the most titled helmsmen in Italy: now he has made the Russians fall in love. Skipper and tactician of Vladimir Liubomirov’s Bronenosec, he won the rainbow title at the Swan 60 World Championship. He also won the World X-35 aboard Francesco Conte’s Giochelotta.

ACHILLE ONORATO
Vincenzo Onorato’s son inherited his father’s great passion for racing: last season for him was silver-tinged, with second place at both the Melges 20 World Championship and the Sailing Series in the same class, aboard Mascalzone Latino jr. Good blood doesn’t lie!

ROBERTO TOMASINI GRINOVER
2014 was a banner year for Roberto Tomasini Grinover of Gorizia, owner of the Robertissima series of boats (including the Melges 32 and Mini Maxi ex-Ran). So many good results, let’s try to summarize some of them: second place in Palmavela, victory at the European Melges 32 won on Lake Garda, victory at the Rolex Volcano Race as part of the Rolex Capri Sailing Week, Giraglia.

THE WINNING OFFSHORE BOATS
ANGRY RED UNITENERGY – T-34
Angry Red UnitEnergy is Domenico Cicala’s T-34 Italian Offshore Champion 2014 in Group 3: rating or no rating, the boat is a real bomb, able to leave behind hulls of much greater lengths in real time. The project is by Studio Lostuzzi in collaboration with Beatrice Pecoraro.

RED BLOOD CELL – ESTE 31
It may be a 1996 design, but the Este 31, born from the pencil of Gérman Frers, continues to provide satisfaction. It is no coincidence that Alessandro Burzi, owner of the Este 31 Globulo Rosso, came close to winning Overall Owner of the Year (which went to Giuffré) in 2014, triumphing in Category 4, reserved for smaller boats.

LOW NOISE – M37
Born in 2007 to a design by Maurizio Cossutti, the M37 Low Noise has won a lot, along with its owner Giuseppe Giuffré: an 11-meter created to be a war machine especially in ORC races. In 2014 he pulled off a one-two punch, winning the ORC World and European Championships.

THE WINNING VINTAGE BOATS
THE BLACKAMOOR OF VENICE (FRERS, 1975)
Gérman Frers’ hand is felt even after 40 years. The Moro di Venezia I, in laminated wood, the first in the successful series of boats desired by Raul Gardini, now armed by Massimiliano Ferruzzi, finished in second place among the Classics at the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge and won in its Les Voiles de Saint Tropez category.

NAMIB (SANGERMANI, 1967)
Pietro Bianchi’s Sangermani Namib (with Mauro Pelaschier and Davide Besana aboard) has won the 2014 Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge. The boat is dated 1967 and Bianchi found it in a state of semi-abandonment: given the results, the three years of restoration, from 2010 to 2012, were well worth it.

SAMURAI (SANGERMANI, 1962)
Luigi Pavese’s Sangermani Samurai won in its class (classic boats) the Puig Vela Clasica regattas in Barcelona: built by the Ligurian shipyard in 1962, this splendid sloop is 18.90 meters long and is still very competitive today.

DERIVISTS.

GIULIA ALAGNA
Giulia Alagna, a Sicilian, is among the very young and many promising sailboarders who are the fruit of the “Sensini school.” Fifth at the Under-17 Techno 293 World Championships, 11th at the Nanjing Youth Olympics.

CAROLINA ALBANO
Triestina, she is the strongest Italian performer in the Byte CII class: 16 years old, last year she won the European overall and missed the world podium by a whisker by finishing fourth. She qualified the nation for the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, in which (again on the Bytes) she finished in eighth place after being in the podium area until the end. Carolina also races in the Laser Radial, where she took second place at the Youth Nationals.

ETTORE BOTTICINI/LORENZO GENNARI
The Vaurien, whose design dates back to 1951, is a drift in which we excel. Ettore Botticini and Lorenzo Gennari, from Maremma, won in the waters of Grosseto the World Class Championship. There must have been a few boats, you will say. Wrong. Eighty crews from all over, very high level. Good guys.

ALEXANDER CALDARI
For the future, we must focus on him. Alessandro Caldari, from Romagna, reigning Italian Optimist Champion: class of 2001, won the national title with a day to spare (in addition to many other regattas around the Boot)!

CARLO CIABATTI
We had already pointed him out (in the February 2014 issue of the GdV) as one of the athletes who could have “made a splash”: Carlo Ciabatti, a 16-year-old from Cagliari, did not disappoint us, winning the Under-17 Techno 293 World Championship in Brest last summer.

TOMMASO FABBRI
The youngest sailor of these “magnificent 100” is named Tommaso Fabbri, class of 2004, and last September he won the Primavela Optimist Cup among Cadets. We will hear about him.

ELIZABETH FAITHFUL
A native of Cagliari, born in 1999, Elisabetta Fedele ended her Optimist career on a high note by winning the Italian Championship in her women’s ranking, moreover finishing fifth overall. Power to women!

VALERIO GALATI
Italy’s youngest match-race ace is named Valerio Galati, he is 21 years old and from Puglia, like his older colleague Simone Ferrarese: he won the European Under 23 title (with Francesco Manzi on the bow, Federico Pasini on the sheets and Ukrainian Taras Khomchyk on the mainsail).

VICTORIO GALLINARO
The male equivalent of the aforementioned Carolina Albano is named Vittorio Gallinaro: for him in 2014 a fourth place at the Byte CII World Championships and qualification for the Youth Olympics in Nanjing.

RUGGERO LO MAURO
Another young man with good hopes joins the large group of athletes engaged on Techno 293 sailboards: he is Sicilian Ruggero Lo Mauro, who represented us well at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing by finishing in ninth position. At the Under-17 European Championships, he instead finished in eighth place.

DIEGO NEGRI/SERGIO LAMBERTENGHI
It may no longer be an Olympic class, but the Star continues to be the drift most frequented by international sailing bigwigs. And the success of the Star Sailors League is full proof of that. By the way, do you know who is at the top of the SSL ranking, out of more than 1,000 top-level skippers? Diego Negri, at the top for a very long time. In tandem with Sergio Lambertenghi, he also won silver at the World Class, which has tremendous sporting value.

CARLOTTA OMARI/FRANCESCA RUSSO CIRILLO
Trieste’s Carlotta Omari and Francesca Russo Cirillo are the future of women’s doubles: they won the 420 Women’s World Championship in 2014 and are also virtually unbeatable in Italy. Chapeau, girls!

MARGHERITA PORRO/ANDREA FRANCESCA DALLORA
The two “Brescian lionesses” (as the local press dubbed them), after winning the RS Feva women’s world championship in 2013, continued on the 29er with equal luck. Third females at the Eurocup and national champions.

ALICE DRY/MARTINA GALVAN
Let’s not underestimate Equipe, which has little following in Italy but is a popular boat in Europe: Alice Secco and Martina Galvan, from Loano, graduated as 2014 European women’s champions (second overall). Bravissime.

GIORGIA SPECIAL
Nomen, omen, said the Latins. Giorgia Speciale, 14, from Ancona, Italy, on the strength of Sef Stamura, is indeed a special sailor: in 2014 she won her second consecutive Under-15 World Championship in Brest, following her triumph in Sopot in 2013. Never before had any Italian in its category, the Under 15, achieved the double.

GIANLUIGI UGOLINI/GIULIO ZIZZARI
The Hobie Cat 16 offers excellent and always crowded regattas. In Italy, we have two true champions: Gianluigi Ugolini and Giulio Zizzari of the Compagnia della Vela of Rome, winners in 2014 (for the second consecutive time) of the National Class Championship.

THE MARINERS
ALBERTO BOLZAN – 32 YEARS OLD
The former Esimit Europa 2 helmsman crowned his dream by abandoning stick racing bewitched by the ocean. At 32 years of age, Alberto Bolzan, born in Romans d’Isonzo (Udine) but raised sailing in Trieste, is the only Italian competing in the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race (the round-the-world crewed sailing race) aboard Team Alvimedica!

ANDREA FORNARO – 37 YEARS OLD

Another Italian who will take part in the Mini Transat, and not to make up the numbers, is Andrea Fornaro, born in Orbetello in 1977. On his 6.50 Sideral capped off an excellent 2014 season with a splendid second place in the Mini Fastnet (the race that starts in Douarnenez, Brittany and then rounds the mythical lighthouse in Cork, Ireland and returns) and seventh place in ranking among the series, first among the Italians.

MATTEO MICELI – 44 YEARS OLD
The 44-year-old Roman yachtsman is back in the news by embarking on a new, original venture, driven by an “eco” spirit: a solo round-the-world voyage without stopover or assistance aboard a self-built Class 40 modified to be completely energy self-sufficient, with solar panels, wind power, hydro generators and a waste recycling system. And food, thanks to an on-board vegetable garden and La Bionda and La Mora–two chickens.

ANDREA MURA – 50 YEARS OLD
Italy needs navigators like this, who never give up, and eventually, should it take years, succeed. The second place at the 2014 Route du Rhum served as a fitting farewell to his trusty Open 50 squire Vento di Sardegna and transition to the new IMOCA 60 aboard which Andrea Mura will participate in the 2016 Vendée Globe (solo round-the-world voyage without stopover or assistance starting in Les Sables d’Olonne). Finally, at 50 years old, Mura has fulfilled his dream and will be able to compare himself with the world’s greatest loners.

ANDREA PENDIBENE – 33 YEARS OLD
The title of Italian Series Category Champion went for the second year in a row (2013 and 2014) to the ITA 520 MM team, the boat of Andrea Pendibene, a Navy athlete who, with co-skipper Giovanna Valsecchi, collected one victory after another throughout the course of the Championship, fighting by any means. Now Andrea is preparing for the 2015 Mini Transat.

MICHELE ZAMBELLI – 24 YEARS OLD
The Italian Mini 650 Champion, Proto class, is Michele Zambelli from Romagna, class of 1990. This could be his year, as on his new Proto Illumia he will enter the 2015 Mini Transat with the clear goal of getting on the podium. The premise is great: last year he took third place at Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables. Now that Giancarlo Pedote has dropped out of the Mini class, he could be its heir, capable of giving the French a hard time…

IRC/ORC AND OFFSHORE SHIPOWNERS
GIUSEPPE GIUFFRÉ – 73 YEARS OLD
Giuseppe Giuffré, this year, achieved the one-two punch dreamed of by every shipowner by winning both the World (Class C) that the European ORC (Class B) with his M37 Low Noise (helmsman Duccio Colombi, tactician Lorenzo Bodini). But the Lombardi publisher (and Cavaliere del Lavoro) is one who loves a challenge. “Tired” of winning everything, he decided to challenge himself again by purchasing the new Low Noise, an Italia Yachts Custom 9.98. Will he be able to replicate his many successes? Meanwhile, he was elected by the UVAI Shipowner of the Year 2014…

PIERO PLATO – 42 YEARS OLD
It is by no means easy to win the Italian Offshore Championship, the national circuit that brings together the fourteen most important offshore regattas on the calendar and has involved more than 360 boats. Piero Plato, a Genoese owner of the J-111 Black Bull, a long experience as a miner behind him, succeeded. And almost always minists are his crewmates. Put many loners together, team up, and win.

MARCO RODOLFI/MATTEO AUGUADRO – 50 YEARS/38 YEARS OLD
Milanese, born in 1965, Marco Rodolfi is probably the most multifaceted shipowner on the Italian scene. He started on the Lasers, then switched to the Soling, He has many ARCs behind him (the last one just this year, closed in third place overall with his Swan 80 Berenice), he finished second at the 2014 Rolex Swan Cup in Porto Cervo, but his best is when paired with titled sailor Matteo Auguadro, aboard the Class 40 TWT Ucomm. This year the two won the Five Hundred in real and finished second in the Two Hundred.

THE OLYMPIC DRIFTERS
VALENTINA BALBI
Valentina Balbi, a Yacht Club Italiano athlete class of 1996, is one of the most promising Laser Radial athletes: in 2014 she won the national youth title while at the world championships she had to “settle” for a sixth place.

DANIELE BENEDETTI
If any athlete will be able to participate in the 2016 Rio Olympics in men’s RS:X, we owe it to Lazio’s Daniele Benedetti, 19, who qualified the nation. His determination is enviable: an Olympic campaign is expensive, so together with his colleague and lifelong friend Mattia Camboni, he decided to launch a web crowdfunding effort to be able to afford it.

ELENA BERTA/GIULIA PAOLILLO
After Giulia Conti and Giovanna Micol dropped out of the 470, Italy risked a gap in this Olympic class: they are raising hopes for Roman Elena Berta and Giulia Paolillo, 22 and 23, 2014 Italian champions, always well placed at the ISAF World Cup and the only Italian team to enter the gold fleet at the World Cup.

VITTORIO BISSARO/SILVIA SICOURI
Vittorio and Silvia (27 and 26) are 2014’s biggest surprise in Olympic sailing. ISAF rankings in hand, they are, for now, the strongest athletes in the world on the new mixed class of Nacra 17 catamarans. They are our most concrete medal hope in Rio 2016.

MATTIA CAMBONI
Here he is, the friend-rival of the aforementioned Benedetti, who is also in the running for Rio 2016: for Mattia Camboni, 2014 brought world youth RS:X silver. For the young phenom born in 1996, this is the second world medal after winning gold in 2013

MICHELE CITIZENS
Michele Cittadini, 17, is the Italian Youth RS:X Champion: one to watch, he has always done and is doing very well. Last summer he won bronze at the European Youth Championships.

GIULIA CONTI/FRANCESCA CLAPCICH
After many “near-goals” on the 470, Giulia Conti (class of 1985) has decided to start again on the 49er FX with a new partner, Francesca Clapcich, a Laser specialist. Right choice: third place at the World Olympic Classes and consistently top results in international regattas nominate them as potential medalists in Rio 2016.

JOYCE FLORIDIA
We have to put a lot of trust in this Veronese girl born in 1994, a fresh acquisition of the Yellow Flames. In 2014 she finished fifth at the Laser Radial under-21 World Championships, as well as winning the Italian U21.

MARTA MAGGETTI
For Marta Maggetti, now 19, the Olympic dream begins in RS:X. Meanwhile, last year he won bronze at the World Youth Championship. Some have called her the heir to Alessandra Sensini. Marta is so strong.

FRANCESCO MARRAI
Francesco Marrai of Pisa is no longer a promise in the Laser: at 21 years old, he continues to place in the top positions of all ISAF international events, is Italian Standard champion, and, when he is not aboard his Laser, wins every match-race event he takes part in. More than a hope for Rio 2016.

ANTONIO SQUIZZATO
The strongest, in Italy is him. Antonio Squizzato, a specialist in the 2.4 mR Paralympic class, won bronze at the European Championships in Valencia in the fall, and dominated at the CICO in Loano in his category, becoming national champion for the second year in a row.

SILVIA ZENNARO
Thanks to her results, chioggio’s Silvia Zennaro, 25, qualified the nation for Rio in the Laser Radial class. The path is arduous, but the Venice Sailing Company athlete, the reigning Italian champion, is the most likely candidate to represent us.

OWNERS OF VINTAGE BOATS

Owner of Samurai, the 1962-dated Sangermani sloop that won the Puig Vela Clasica in Barcelona, the important Spanish event reserved for vintage boats, Luigi Pavese is the “guardian angel” of his own boat, which has belonged to the Pavese family since its launch. He loves these kinds of boats so much that he became the secretary of the Sangermani Club.

DESIGNERS.
MATTEO POLLI
Matteo Polli, Chief Designer of Italia Yachts, knows how to make the boats he designs run. From 2014 are the Italia Yachts 15.98 and the fast cruiser-racer Low Noise 2 (the first Italia 9.98 off-roader) commissioned by Giuseppe Giuffré (for whom Polli also optimized the M37 Low Noise), which was immediately a winner in the first races it faced.

THE “CHOSEN BY YOU”

DAVIDE DUCHI

Davide Duchi has entered the race: the young optimist (chosen by you and widely voted for) won the Garda Meeting (the most crowded regatta in the world) last year. His palmares also include the Italian Teams, the Silver Optimist in Torbole and participation in the World Championship.

ROBERTISSIMA III
Roberto Tomasini Grinover was the most voted candidate during the first round of voting. And among the “chosen by you,” the JV72 Robertissima III repeated the success of its owner. Indeed, the former Ran 2 is a winning boat, with triumphs at the Volcano Race and Capri Sailing Week (and second place at the World Mini Maxi).