“My Mini 6.50 saved me from suicide.”

The story of Lele Panzeri and Ubu goes something like this. Lele in 2009 at almost 60 years old decided to buy a Mni 6.50 (Ubu) with the idea of going solo around the world to beat a depressive crisis. A journey by sea, through water, salt, wind, sun and waves where we let slip what was once called spleen. Here was the initial idea: leave from the island of San Pietro (Carloforte) to reach the Canary Islands and join the fleet leaving in November for the ARC, cross the Atlantic and from there continue to the Pacific… The reality is that far fewer miles were spent on the water, all the way to Alicante in Spain, but that from this time spent at sea came a journey into the imagination and the meanderings of the mind that grinded out many miles and from which the book “Ubu’s fantastic journey, a story of a suicide gone wrong, that is, good.” As the pages read, being “A tiny dot, on the horizon, at the mercy of the waves” is a fortunate recipe for finding oneself in the middle of nowhere. An unfinished voyage by sea turns into a fulfilled voyage for the person. Because every navigator is first and foremost a dreamer, capable of imagining journeys long before they set out. And then reading these pages you laugh so much, the stories told, the encounters are teary-eyed: like the one about the McLaren brothers saving his life (not at sea but in the mountains during a hike on the Spanish coast) or the marathon to eat the tastiest squid in all the Balearic Islands. A book about depression yes, but an entertaining one.

Last night Lele Panzeri presented his book at RAL 8022 in Milan in front of his audience: a well-assorted mix of sailors and publicists, including our editor Luca Oriani, Davide Besana, and Paolo Martinoni, to name a few.
On Saturday, April 12, however, it will be the turn of the book presentation at our TAG Heuer VELAFestival starting at 12:30 pm. But it doesn’t end there: Lele Panzeri will also be featured on Thursday, April 10 at 5 p.m. in the meeting “Becoming Lonely in a Day” together with Andrea Mura and Roberto Westermann.

WHERE TO FIND THE BOOK
You can download “Ubu’s Amazing Journey, A Suicide Story Ended Badly, I Mean Well” from the following link www.blonk.it/book/il-fantastico-viaggio-di-ubu/.

WHO IS LELE PANZERI
Lele Panzeri is Italy’s most awarded publicist and lifelong sailor. He made his debut in the magical world of sailing on a Koala 50 rigged as a Ketch; then he switched to dinghies: first the Mattia S and then the Class A, on the trapeze of which he gave birth to his best ideas as an advertising creative. Most famous is the Ferrarelle water “Smooth, Sparkling or Ferrarelle?” adventures as a sailor, as well as one aboard UBU, an Atlantic crossing comes the Atlantic on an 18-meter cutter.

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