“Going around the world alone on an Oceanis 34? I’m doing it this way.”

Today we tell you a beautiful sea story. A story of passion, certainly, in some ways romantic. But mostly full of tips for better navigation. Stefano Gigli wanted to, in his own words, “live his life better.” To do this, he decided to buy a 2008 Beneteau Oceanis 34 and equip it-in great detail, as you will see-for a solo round-the-world trip. After the never-ending list of works-which you will find complete, take your cue! – left from Ostia last September 12 and is now in the Lesser Antilles, Caribbean.

My solo round-the-world trip and life on an Oceanis 34

This is not a voyage of heroic deeds, before me many have done it, right now there are many of us and after me there will still be many solo or crewed navigators opening new routes with small pleasure boats. It is not a business and was not born as such but is a way to travel slowly by observing and poking around without a specific destination but with the purpose of living my life to the fullest, orienting my sails and sailing free.

The thousand passions of a “multi-sportsman”

As a child I was attracted to snow-capped mountains, clouds in the sky and waves in the sea. I liked everything that moved in the air, and when I happened to see a seagull flying without blinking, I dreamed I could do it too.

Following my passions I became a Ski Instructor, Sailing Instructor, Mountain Bike Guide, Stand Up Paddler, Paraglider and Glider Pilot. I work in the kite and paragliding industry I am part of a big family, The Ozone Kite and Paragliding company, and with this company we are participating in the upcoming Olympics.

I have been working in the multisport industry for more than 25 years, I live in New Zealand, where I work as a tandem paraglider pilot and collaborate in the Ozone New Zealand project, but during the summer season I am in Europe, I take care of Ozone Kites Italia for distribution and organize different sport activities as well as spending time with my family and friends.

Today I have a great desire to fly over and sail every corner of the world, and I thought I would do it with the Connect, a 34-foot sailboat with a special story for me.

How I fell in love with my boat …

In 2019 I remember that I was working with a paragliding school in Austria when my dad called me and told me that a friend of his was selling his sailboat that he hadn’t used for two years now. It was high season, and I promised my father that as soon as I got back we would talk about it. Dad was into fishing and had a small cabin cruiser, until he got sick with Cancer and had to sell it. To continue going to sea knowing my passion for sailing we decided to buy “Pasta e Ceci,” a 2008 Beneteau Oceanis 34 (10.34 x 3.66 m).

Certainly the name was bizarre and the boat by now let go in Civitavecchia harbor. The challenge was not to buy it but to give it a new look and a new design: that was how Pasta e Ceci became the new Connect.

During my business travels between moves to New Zealand and Italy, we slowly got her back on track to navigate by first making her fun and safe without much pretense of going who knows where. Subsequently, my father’s illness worsened, and in conjunction with the occurrence of the pandemic, the boat, like all the others, returned to the shipyard stationary.

… and the world tour (“fault” of Matteo Miceli!).

Nothing happens by accident, the period of stalling and supporting my father gave birth to new ideas including a longer trip. I began to do some research regarding how to prepare a small boat for an adventure. I interviewed many friends and colleagues, much reading and much confusion until one day I met Matteo Miceli.

He knows a thing or two about travel and oceans, and has sailed the world’s seas in a variety of ways: from solo crossing in an 18-foot uninhabitable catamaran to circumnavigating the world in the Eco, a zero-emission Class40. Who better than he could have enlightened me. I remember inviting him on board and we started talking about this and that about how to prepare the boat for a long journey.

From that meeting a good friendship was also born, not only did we begin to share his experiences and my ideas but also magnificent glider flights, relaxing warm baths in his natural pool and delicious dinners prepared by his wife Corinna (special people)!

First of all, I needed to create a budget, then a team of people who were competent and involved in the project, and then find suppliers.

In January 2021, my dad passed away, cancer forgives no one, and from there that I decided to accomplish what I basically always wanted: sailing around the world.

Can you go around the world by yourself on an Oceanis 34? Yes

But can you go around the world in a 34-footer? Perhaps the question was wrongly posed by many in that they were dwelling on the length and not on the “content” of the medium or even my abilities or motivations. The journey is not a race or a challenge. It is a journey made up of varying schedules and with a medium to long time frame, in stages and without pretense. Certainly not a trip to curl up somewhere, but to sail With a boat similar to a 4×4. Agile, reliable, with good range, economical to operate, easy to lead.

How to achieve energy autonomy without polluting

Connect, her new name, was docked at Riva di Traiano. There, together with Claudio Santi of SystemYacht, we optimized onboard instrumentation, services, and especially power. Matteo Miceli’s primary goal was to push me to run the boat with energy self-sufficiency without the help of the endothermic engine.

First question, how much energy does my boat consume to be autonomous? A calculation arrived at only by knowing it and using it. The theory has many limitations but is a good starting point.

With Claudio we started from this doubt to total energy independence, and again with Matteo’s advice we came up with this onboard system.

Four AGM batteries of 100A each, four Solbian solar panels of 100W each; together with Matteo we designed a roll bar to house both the panels and the davits for the tender. A 400W Silent Wind generator, a 600W Watt & Sea hydrogenerator, a 100W Balmar power alternator.

Everything is managed by charge controllers and Victron control unit that connected by bluetooth gives you all the information on iPad or your phone.

The tools and “network” on board

With this “clean” energy back-up, we provided power to the new instrumentation and management system that includes: two Raymarine plotters, a Garmin Raptor primary pilot, a Raymarine secondary pilot, a hydraulic piston actuator, a Raymarine radar, a Garmin 800 AIS, a PC with interfaced data, AIS and navigation programs (Smart Skipper and Open CPN), an Iridium Go for satellite voice, message, email and Grib Weather communication.

Instead, for fresh and drinking water autonomy, we installed a 30-liter Schenker with an activated carbon system. I modified the water loading both internally with the watermaker and externally. I replaced the digital level gauges with analog gauges and installed a Webasto heating/dehumidification/airing system.

A lot of stuff, but mostly a lot of hours of work and navigation to get the system to talk properly according to my needs to navigate solo on this trip.

If I were to recommend, solar panels are the best source of energy along with the hydrogenerator. The wind generator is very good when you are in the roadstead, but obviously only in windy locations. Neither of these energy sources replaces the other; rather, they are complementary in such a journey.

Engine: how to consume one liter per hour at an average of 5.5 knots

Having sorted out the power, which always requires assistance anyway but also a lot of knowledge (I learned a lot from Claudio to know how to handle any problems in navigation as well), at the same time I started to get my hands on the engine and its simple but must be foolproof systems when needed.

Mimmo Prospero, dear fellow sailor, has always been the one with whom I got my hands on rigging and motoring.

How can we make a small 20hp Yanmar run at its best without breaking it? Working hard and in a “capillary” way. First, despite its few hours (about 1100) we disassembled the heat exchanger, cleaned the tube bundle, replaced the raiser, replaced all the Armovil hoses with much more solid high-pressure hoses, put taps on the boiler circuit, changed all the clamps, installed an additional Racor diesel filter, a 12v electric pump for liquid suction, and replaced the plastic water filter with an alloy filter.

Then: propeller shaft grinding, Volvo cap replacement, three-blade Max Prop propeller with Speed Prop antifouling. We got a little gem that at 2500 rpm consumes one liter hour at an average speed of 5.5 knots. Zero problems, maximum reliability.

What about when the wind is blowing at 25 knots and you need to maneuver by motor? Can you do it? Of course, for this boat the 30Cv would be better but by finding the right propeller pitch I assure you that it succeeds, and well too because the boat is agile and the evolutionary effect of the Max Prop allows me to maneuver easily.

The rigging

Regarding rigging, we changed the high shrouds, turnbuckles, halyards, and optimized a 2/1 halyard for small headsails (foresail and storm jib that I use with a whip), the anchor snout also became, thanks to a steel modification (a reinforcement), the gennaker tack point.

Anchor and chain. Always redundant

The first thing I changed on the Oceanis was really the anchor. For me, the best one for Connect is a 15Kg Rocna with a chain from 60 meters of the 10 and 40 meters of line. I have always slept peacefully everywhere. It is not my habit to enter ports unless I have to do maintenance of a certain kind, so anchor and chain are the sources of my deep sleeps.

As a stern anchor I always have a Rocna 15 and the choice to have it the same is only for the reason that if I were to lose the main one I have its replacement. On hand along with the anchors I have a 50 m line and two 30 m lines, there are places where you can put the lines on the ground and having them available is not to be underestimated.

The right sail game

How do I make Connect sail decently? I chose to work with the guys from 3FL, Francesco, Diego, Iko, and my mentor Ciccipicci, the one who taught me how to sail many many years ago and with whom I used to have fun gaining experience on the high seas.

I remember when I called Francesco Cruciani, who was also recommended by Barbara, Matteo and Simone of Circolo Velico Ventotene. I remember when I told him I wanted to start with a 34-footer (formerly Pasta e Ceci), he used to talk to Swan owners well…imagine that. But I was driven by such motivation that together with all of them we breathed new life into Connect and its new sail game.

The only drawback of this boat was initially the furling mainsail in the mast. But how to solve this problem? The plan was to redo the sail plan and balance the boat in its gaits, especially the carriers for the trade winds in the Atlantic.

After some reasoning (reliability, maneuverability, and safety), the mainsail came out new from the workshop with three vertical battens and a positive profile from the same square footage as the regular mainsail. A great opportunity has arisen from the problem, as the furling batten mainsail allows me to balance the boat perfectly, thus reducing the strain on the rudder and autopilot system. Zero problems wrapping or rolling it (of course there is a way to do it correctly in all gaits, but you have to know the system and the boat well). Then: jib, foresail, and storm jib as headsails, large gennaker of nylon fabric for light wind, small gennaker of heavy fabric for strong wind (to be worn especially in the ocean) with lots of fat on the head, and finally a Code Zero more like a large genoa which I use in light winds with angles from 60 up to 120° and also allows me to use it in stronger winds, up to 15 knots.

Great teamwork that allowed me to get this far with top performance.

A “custom” system for tangoning the jib

To strengthen some parts of the rigging, I involved Fabio from Tibermast who with his talented technicians made custom parts on the boom and mast, including a tangon/bouncer with which I keep the jib open especially at night when I reduce the mainsail and poggio to go to sleep without having to change sails as the groppi come in. I can reduce jib even when tangoned, and this allows me to balance the boat very quickly and easily. I do not use a high charge but adjust it with the gennaker sheets and through the foresail sheets, which act as a low charge. Each maneuver is reported in the cockpit.

With this set, the Connect as small as it is, in the Ocean in the “Trade Wind” grinds an average of 140 to 160 miles per day.

Solo management

But how do I manage this boat alone? As mentioned, I reported every single maneuver in the cockpit. I hardly ever go to the bow, only if I have to hoist or haul the gennaker with the stocking or rig the tangon. Every single maneuver has been reviewed and optimized to allow me to stay in safe command at all times, sleep at night, and steer from within as there is also a camera mounted on the technical mast and with Navionics navigation systems , Smart Skipper and Open CPN. With the pilot remote control, I can stay inside even in bad weather conditions. AIS and radar alerts reported on multiple systems are additional security. Smart Skipper really talks to you, Open CPN sounds the alarm and the plotters have the buzzer… If you meet someone at night be sure to play everything. There are no less than three life lines on the deckhouse that allow me to secure myself whenever I need to move.

The question of length

All this work took time and money of course, but all projects always require energy commensurate with the end. By this I mean that the new designs, even in the smallest boats, allow for great fun, performance and safety. I did not do any structural reinforcement at Connect. Certainly there are companies on the market that build boats called “Blue Water” par excellence but no smaller than 45 feet and with prices starting from half a million euros.

The use of new materials and construction techniques allow shipyards to build Class A approved boats at more affordable costs. Maintenance however costs regardless and is in proportion to the length and time you can or want to spend on it. As of today I don’t know if I would buy a boat bigger than the Connect, maybe I would go for a 36 or at most a 40-footer but for the moment I don’t have this change in mind also because my trip is also inland. The boat is a way to move around the sea.

I see kids, families and people sailing all over the place, and it opens up a world of explorers who are not looking for comparisons of speed, distance or performance in the competition I call the “Rat Human Race.” It is merely the spirit of adventure and personal exploration, everyone takes the trip they like best, and if we read the books of great navigators like Slocum, Moitessier or the same Francis Aurelius Geraci (the first Italian to circumnavigate the world after Slocum in 1932 with a 10-meter wooden schooner without an engine), a 34-footer I think is more than fine for both a relaxing Mediterranean cruise and an interesting world tour.

Evidence and technical support

During the preparation process there were also many sea tests and thus many miles. With the guys from Traiano Nautica, we fine-tuned the details of current and fixed rigging. How can I forget Rome x 2 together with Raphael? When I proposed to him to participate to try, he did not hesitate much to say yes, he always liked my project, and at the start we set off determinedly even in challenging weather conditions. Our goal was to finish the race, try all the systems and try to see if it would break down-we finished and we didn’t break anything, it just unscrewed a shackle.

After the Rome x 2 I wanted to continue with my testing and participated in the Long Bolina together with a childhood friend, Andre Zecca with whom I enjoyed sharing two days of sailing. Also all good here.

Then from June to August another test was to try not only deep-sea sailing but also life aboard, energy self-sufficiency, roadsteads, and livability in a 34-footer. Together with Paulo, in the fleet with his Outremer 49, also preparing for the tour, and Matteo with his Outremer 60 (now touring the world), we slowly made a nice tour passing through Sardinia and west of Corsica until descending again from the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago visiting also the most beautiful island in the world, Montecristo. Perhaps to date the most beautiful place I have ever visited by sea.

Shovel and appendices. The anti-vibration modifications

In early September I hauled the Connect dry at Fabio Falbo ‘s in Fiumicino, Marina Yacht Service, a great place to get the work done with a team of knowledgeable people and many services available. On this occasion I did a very particular thing to the rudder blade but necessary. I pulled down to check the bushings and the whole brakes system, pilot and actuator, I decided to redo the trailing edge profile of the blade as it comes out of production with a square profile of about half an inch.

This gave me a very important vibration at certain speeds and gaits. In talking and comparing myself, everyone thought it was a problem related to the rigging that reported a resonance on the hull. However, I remember Maurizio Marini, an experienced skipper, telling me to check the trailing edges of the appendages. So I took the ball and went to talk to another technician who was very knowledgeable about composite materials and profiles, Michele Saponara.

So we decided to create a perfectly symmetrical, tapered profile by widening the blade chord by a few cm. The result of robust, precision work was total cancellation of vibration but, above all, unprecedented shovel effectiveness for Connect. Soft, precise and direct.

My guru

A very instrumental and valuable person in this project was and still is Diego Volpi, a dear friend with whom I share flying experiences who has incredible experience in gliding and in the air. He has already done two oceans including one with a 34-footer, together with family with small child and a dog the first time. The second time with an Oceanis 437 for a full 5 years. I think he has crossed the Atlantic about ten times, he knows! His valuable advice, but most of all his preparation on boat management, maintenance, planning a route, weather, places. He knows! He who followed and follows me in routing and weather during crossings and always gives me a kick in the butt at the right time to motivate me and always look west. Thank you Diego.

September 12, 2021 – The departure for the world tour

On the pier of the Marina Yacht Service in Ostia, together with Gabriele with whom I shared many things even far more important we set off for Ventotene. I preface, I think I fell in love with Rome again the night before with Barbara and Alessia. It had been a long time since I had felt emotions in this city, but they were able to give me new vibrations in the Eternal City. At the dock the embrace them, Matteo and Corinna, Diego, Roberta, Lauretta, and Diego Magellanes, brother of flight. A farewell that was a goodbye because you can travel all you want but always back one day you will return, with different eyes with a new spirit.

First stop in Ventotene, where I learned to sail

Why was the first destination Ventotene? Sailing is part of my career, which began at Circolo Velico Ventotene. I used to go there as a teenager to learn how to sail. Then I kept going there and collaborating with Mauro and Simone Ugazio I contributed for that little bit to the development of a historic sailing club. My deep friendship and esteem for them therefore attracted me back to the island on the occasion of the feast of St. Candida. Paulo arrived with Takaroa and other friends to party, My Mom, Sara, Sonia and other friends with whom I shared unforgettable days celebrating Ue Ue u Pallo’ in Church Square.

Course 270, heading west!

September 21, 2021, 3 p.m. UTC, the lines are dropped on me by Rodolfo who was my sailing instructor 30 years ago. Connect unfurls the sails and orients the bow to the west. The voyage of discovery begins with a light breeze from the west: we set out on an adventure that I call the icing on the cake for my 50th birthday.

Where I am now and where I will go

March 2022. I am now in the Lesser Antilles and in the next article I have much to tell you about the last 5,000 miles, about the Mediterranean, the Strait of Gibraltar, the magical islands of La Gomera and El Hierro (a World Heritage Site) in the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Creole and the lonely Talantic Crossing with unexpected, almost “climate inhospitality” of the Lesser Antilles, and maybe a hint of the next stops in Latin America. Colombia, Bolivia, Peru by air, the heart of this journey through Andean cultures, and Panama by boat to cross the Channel and direct the bow to the Pacific islands in search of Maori contacts…

“Mom, I’m going on a round-the-world trip!”

My mother was not so shocked that day that I told her, “Mother, I’m leaving for a round-the-world trip with Connect.” Then again, after 30 years of adventures and bizarre projects, she also got a little gassed. Mother Luciana today is the first supporter of my journey. She follows me on the Garmin Live Tracking, We talk to each other with Iridium Go when I am in the Ocean, we email and message each other, and I turn photos and stories over to her when I can. And in spite of everything, knowing that Mother is following you and is peaceful makes me feel good.

Do you want to follow me?

I am not a Social Network enthusiast, I am not a YouTuber or a Twitter addict. If you want, you can contact me by e-mail at stefano@ozoneitalia.com

Good Wind

Stephen Gigli